


The Alpha King

by blackoblivion13



Series: The Embrace of Neoria's Moon [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: A little bit of actual mpreg, Aliens, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Dubious Consent, Implied Mpreg, Knotting, M/M, Mates, Mating, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rimming, Smut, Sorry I forgot to tag that, but nothing graphic, mentions of mpreg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-28
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2018-01-17 07:57:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 45,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1379908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackoblivion13/pseuds/blackoblivion13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Sorry, it's a shit title, but I find it fitting. Also, I'm so bad at summaries. Sorry.)<br/>The world went to hell, but it's on the mend thanks to a suicidal plant from some aliens and a hell of a lot of funding from governments across the globe (nothing brings people-and aliens-together quite like catastrophe). 30 years after the Neroians helped turn the tides in the Earth's fight for survival, finds a new king on their throne... Though no one outside the government has contact with these mysterious visitors, it doesn't stop rumors from spreading like a wild fire... in fact, it only hastens their spread.<br/>Derek is uninterested in these silly rumors. He has a life that he's working to improve. He doesn't care about aliens that have nothing to do with him... Of course, what can he do when he's offered up to the Neroian's prince as one of many sacrifices for the sake of his government's peace treaty with them?<br/>Yuvile is the Alpha Prince, and he's found his mate, Derek. He's not going to let him go. Even if the other man is straight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Umm... so I'm not actually sure what I'm doing. But I'm really excited about this idea. Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics is my secret passion, so when I thought up a story that was PERFECT for it, I couldn't resist. Of course, I plan for this to be kind of like a really short novella thing... or rather a series of novellas that focus on the relationships or something but when connected, they kind of resolve all unanswered questions? Or something like that!  
> I'm not sure how well I'll finish this. I've only ever finished one thing before (and I'm rewriting it so it'll be better/longer)... but I'll do my best. :)  
> Um... I'll tag as I decide what I'm going to put in here... Anyway, sorry it's really short. I don't actually have ANY idea on how I'm dividing the chapters. It'll probably be a time thing, so some chapters will be super short (like this one) and some will be super long... Sorry in advance for that.  
> I was also gonna say something else, but I can't remember what it was... sorry. Thank you and I hope you like it.

_Derek_

In 2035—30 years ago and one year before I was born—the inhabitants of Earth met a new race. In fact, we’d discovered aliens. Or rather, we’d been discovered BY aliens. Earth had discontinued programs like NASA years before during the Environmental Crisis of 2025, redirecting their resources towards restoration programs in an attempt to prevent the inevitable.

Regardless of their efforts, hundreds of thousands of people died and the world outside had not been able to support life no matter how hard we tried to fix it… we just didn’t have the resources to pull toxin from the air. And that’s where out good alien friends come into play. Their reason for coming—especially now of all times—and their entire existence was kept in a tight secret—it’s still a secret even to this day—but regardless of _why_ they came… they brought something that would help change the world for the better.

Nicknamed the “Suicide Tree,” the space tree absorbed toxin from the air until it killed itself with the pollutants. Hence, the nickname.

Even 30 years after, the air outside still is too toxic to walk around without an air-purifying mask…but at least now we CAN walk outside under the sun; though we also have to be careful of the wreaked ozone which scientists are working to restore to its former glory.

These trees and the peace we have with the Neroians didn’t come for free of course. Even though no government says anything, each one has a treaty with the Neroian’s king. They return every now and then for reasons only those in the upper fields of government will ever know.

Of course, with all the secrecy around the ‘visitors’ came rumors that spread like wild-fire. As a child, born when the treaties were still new and the idea of aliens still fresh and foreign, I’d been fascinated by the rumors, by the idea of aliens, and by the thoughts of going into space. As I got older, I traded out those silly fantasies for more logical ones. I began dismissing the rumors, ignoring the silly fantasies I had of being an engineer on a space craft,  and began embracing logical thinking, rational goals… These things were supposed to have landed me a semi-stable job and then a girlfriend, if not a wife…

By 29, I should have a good job—I have an engineering degree after all—instead, I’m still working in a Japanese-style host club like I had when I was in university. No matter the fact that I look several years younger than my age, I shouldn’t be doing such a job…

And this is where I find myself. I sigh and look at the locker in front of me , check the mirror to make sure nothing is out of place and then close and lock the door before going out to see my first customer. She’s a petite little brunette. Easy on the eyes, but she had a certain air about her that told him that she was not someone he would consider looking into… no, she was probably barely out of college.

Plus romancing with clients was a little bit difficult… Romance in general was difficult, since girls tend to get jealous of a job where you’re supposed to flirt and ‘love’ your client.

I wish the girl a good evening and roll it on thick and smooth. She eats it up… and then she gives me the payback for making her feel so special by telling me all about her job as a government something or the other at some office of somewhere. I continue indulging her, pouring her drinks, and after two small ones she really lets loose.

“It’s going to be such a terrible year,” she whines, leaning against me and looking up at me with a pout. “The Neroians’ king died recently and his son just ascended the throne… so he’s coming to meet with our government…”

I gave her another indulgent smile, outwardly willing her to continue as I poured her another drink while inwardly wishing that she wouldn’t talk about it. I didn’t want to know. I didn’t care. Unfortunately, she was new and obviously well-off, so I wasn’t going to be rude.

“Don’t tell anyone, but I’m actually going to be meeting with them,” she said in a conspiratorial whisper to me, her lips brushing my ear.  It didn’t give me that same tingle that I normally got. I internally sighed, this was getting tiresome. I needed a steady job, soon. I wrapped an arm around her and fed her the drink in the most intimate way I could manage, trying to get her to change the topic to something less frustrating. I had no such luck. “I was put on the welcome committee so I’ve been studying hard so that I won’t embarrass our country when I greet them.”

This bit was said with such frustration that I lifted a brow at her. That was a little interesting. She actually got to learn about that mysterious race. Of course, she could be lying through her teeth just because she thinks it’ll get her what she wants, but it doesn’t matter much. I’m not really interested in her or her work or studies. I’m just really good at acting.

“It must be so hard on you,” I said, sympathetically.

She giggled. I’m going to have to stop giving her alcohol at this rate; it’s obviously getting to her.

“Yeah! It’s horrible the things I’ve had to read! They use this ‘Alpha-Beta-Omega’ system, so they _sniff_ people when they first meet them like animals! And they have this idea that they have ‘destined mates’ like some stupid porn novel.” She said with outrage.

I mentally change ‘porn novel’ to ‘romance novel’ in my head, internally cringing with embarrassment as I find that they are my guilty pleasure.

“Like they’re going to _sniff me_!” she looked disgusted, “And what if one of them claims I’m his _mate_! I don’t want to be liked by an alien.”

The sniffing thing I understood, but the last bit was a bit harsh. I mean, I understand where she’s coming from… but that didn’t really excuse it.

Instead of trying to say anything and interrupt her rant, I merely rubbed her arm soothingly.

“And there was this _huge_ section on sex and safety in regards to the men, particularly the Alphas or whatever they are!” she said, practically growling her distaste at this. “And don’t even get me started on the section on how to respect the _king_ of those freaks!”

Definitely too much alcohol, I decided it would be for the best to cut this conversation off before it got any more heated.

“Darling,” I said, looking at her with the ‘worried lover’ look I could manage, “I hate seeing you so distraught… Why don’t we speak about something more…” I dropped my voice a bit and whispered the next words against her ear, “pleasant?”

Hook, line, and sinker; my plan successfully drew her from the conversation. Even though the younger hosts often wondered why I was still here at my age in the beginning, they soon stopped bad-mouthing me as my experience and more mature appearance made my clients swoon and most of the time, I was in a comfortable second to third place of the six hosts when it came to clients and sales. When I’d been a little younger and more into the job, I’d been the number one host easily for months in a row.

After the pretty brunette, the rest of the night passed by smoothly, and I was able to put all thoughts of aliens and their kings away from my thoughts.


	2. Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure if this chapter is as good as the first. I feel it's kind of rushed. As it is, this is just the "draft" version, so if (when?) I finish the story, I'll hopefully be able to go back and make it that much better... Until then, the rough version will have to do.
> 
> Anyway... please enjoy. I'm sure it's a little confusing, but it'll all be explained away in due time. :)

_Derek_

One week passed after the brunette told me that the Neroians were going to come to visit the governments of this world. I was beginning to doubt the girl even more. I scoffed at myself. Even IF she had of been telling the truth, I shouldn’t have let it get to me. I couldn’t believe I’d let myself buy into that stupid trick of hers.

I sighed a bit, shifting through some vegetables. They were expensive, but I couldn’t stand that processed, frozen crap that had been meant to substitute fresh produce. I’ve been told that food grown naturally now wasn’t nearly half as good as before when it could be grown outside of large facilities, but I’d never had access to better than this, so I didn’t bother wondering too often about it.

As I selected a desirable piece of broccoli, the hologram screen—or holoscreen—of my computer bracer crackled to life signaling an alert broadcast. With a sigh, I looked down at the small screen. Apparently the Neroians had just landed in Japan. I’ll be damned. Maybe the brunette wasn’t lying after all.

The arrival date for each country was listed after that. Apparently, they were planning to hit the United States by the end of the month. It was rather unusual since they typically went through all the more advanced countries and then worked their way down which would put the United States in the top three visited… this time they seemed to be going in some sporadic order. It must be because of the new ruler.

I sighed, what did it matter?  They had nothing to do with the rest of us. I still didn’t understand why our government still felt the need to tell us when they were coming. Was it a publicity stunt? They would be coming during the month just before the November 2056 elections… But it still didn’t make much sense. How would that affect voters? Whatever, it wasn’t my problem. Washington D.C. was plenty far away from here… we wouldn’t even see the space craft, more than likely.

I clicked holoscreen off and proceeded with my shopping, ending it with several newspaper and job cards that I would be able to sift through in hopes of finding a better job. I finish paying and press the button on the collar around my neck. The hologram mask—or holomask—slips up and covers my mouth and nose, to filter the air coming directly into my lungs. I step out and head back towards my apartment, which is closer to the New York City Biosphere which only covered the wealthier part of the city.

Half-way to my house, I stopped. The brunette who’d come to the club… she had said she was going to meet with them. I shook my head. Maybe it was just by chance that she knew the Neroians were coming… she could still be lying about everything else. After all, New York may still be an important city, but it wasn’t the nation’s capital.

Pushing more pointless thoughts from my head, I jumped slightly when my computer bracer alerted me to a call. I activated the holoscreen and smiled when I saw my friend, Nick, on the other end.

“Hey! How’s it going?” he laughed. “Oh? You’re outside? Shopping before work tonight?”

“Yeah,” I replied with a chuckle of my own. “How’s the detective life treating ya?”

The African American man’s chocolate eyes lit up as I asked about his new job.

“It’s been great.” He said, excitedly, “But I didn’t call you to brag. You have the day off tomorrow, right?”

I nodded, smiling at his excitement.

“Great, let’s get together with the boys and go drinking or something. It’s rare that you have a Saturday off!”

“I drink every night,” I replied, with a sigh. “I’m too old to keep this up.”

“Get your foot out of the grave! I’m three years older than you and you don’t see me whining about being old.” He said, waggling his brows at me. “Come on! We can get some _real_ girls in here to flirt with… the ones you like. Long legs, red hair… big tits..? What do ya say?

“I say that this place is way too public for this kind of conversation.” I glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention. “I’ll come. What time?”

“That’s what I’m talking about! The guys and me have been missin’ you man!” he laughed, “I’ll meet you at the usual place… say about… 6:30? Wear those sexy jeans o’ yours. You know the girls just die for those… Hell, so do half the guys.”

I rolled my eyes. “Only _you_ would notice if there were guys checkin’ me out.”

“Someone’s gotta defend that sweet virgin ass of yours.”

“Again, too public for this conversation,” I laughed out loud as I reached my apartment and climbed up to the third floor where my apartment was nestled furthest from the stairs.

“You love me, dude! Just admit it!” he laughed, his eyes sparkling again. Nick was pretty openly gay and as long as we kept the banter friendly, I didn’t mind. He’d never expressed interest in me—in fact, I’m pretty sure he was more into our other friend, Rhody, but anyone’s guess is as good as mine—so we kept a good relationship.

“Yeah, yeah,” I replied, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” I hang up on him as I walk into the apartment, chuckling a little bit.

He sent me a message.

_Douche, didn’t have to hang up on me. – NC_

I laughed, and then typed into my reply.

_Sorry, did I hurt the poor baby’s feelings? – DI_

_You’re such an ass. – NC_

A few minutes later:

_Also, be careful out… a woman was murdered in your area the other day. – NC_

A chill went up my spin.

 _Dude, really? That’s just creepy. Besides, don’t criminals have like, I dunno, a specific target type or something?_ _I’m pretty sure I’m not a woman. – DI_

His reply didn’t come until well after I’d cooked and finished dinner.

 _Usually, yeah, something like that. But it doesn’t hurt to be cautious. Just keep it in mind, I’ll talk to ya l8tr._ _– NC_

With a sigh, I showered and left for work… which ended up being tremendously boring. I collapsed later when I got home, a bunch of job-search chips sitting in a neat pile on my bed side.

_You’d think an engineer wouldn’t have such a hard damn time finding a job… -- DI_

Nick should be up about now… Wait, it’s Saturday, so maybe not. Oh well.

_Dude, wtf? It’s like… 5 AM. Besides you know experience is EVERYTHING in that field. Book smarts will only get so far. And it’s not like you have an award-winning personality. – NC_

_Dick – DI_

But he was right. I sighed and unclipped the device from my wrist, setting it on the nightstand next to the cards. I’d get working on those when I woke up.

I snuggled my face into the pillow. The bracer squawked at me saying I had a new message. I ignored it. I was too comfortable now. My mind was restless though. Nick was always right. I had a different mask for every situation. My work face—all charm and charisma—my friend persona—all good humor and masculinity… and while, I’m not denying being all of those things I am normally more defensive and grouchy than anything. As far as I know, Nick is the only one who understands that about me… it is a rather strange reaction.

There is no particular reason… None that I can claim is unique, at least. My parents were assholes, pure and simple…Not an unusual occurrence in a world still putting itself back together. Well, there were some other things, but they were also quite common occurrences in the world that we live in.

So… why did it bother me so much? I snorted. Probably because I couldn’t seem to hold a job because I was always pissing off my bosses, and that meant that I couldn’t gain experience in the field that I needed, which meant that in the end I couldn’t get a job in the field I wanted.

A sigh works its way out of my throat and I curl into the pillow more. I’ll sleep for a little while before I get to work on those job things and have to meet the guys. It didn’t take long to fall asleep.

I woke to my alarm five hours later, groaning ever so slightly. I knew it wasn’t enough sleep, but I needed to find a better job, so that’s what I would do.

The time to leave to meet my friends came quickly enough, and I felt I’d been rather successful all things considered. I’d managed to apply to three prominent looking places. All that was left was to wait for them to call me back with promises of interviews… _If_ they wanted to interview me, at least.

On my walk to meet the guys, I got the faintest chill that someone was watching me. I imagine it’s because Nick was creeping me out with the whole murderer thing. I hadn’t even realized that there had been a murder. Not that that was particularly surprising.

I didn’t actively look up that kind of stuff, and while the government still had the same law system—with some adjustments for the newer way of things and technology, etc.—they tended to keep publicity about the bad things in society down to a minimum when things started getting a little out of hand a few years back. In fact, if I remember correctly, the last time the Neroians came to Earth there was a string of murders across the country… or at least that’s what Nick said, since he actually pays attention to stuff like that.

The government investigated and said it was something about anti-Neroian movements and other stuff that made no sense to me, but I remembered the alert. I wondered if that would happen again. It’s very likely considering that some people are always looking for an excuse to start something…especially against the government… and especially since the crisis that brought the world together is slowly ebbing away, even if it’s not gone completely.

The evening started with a light supper—it was a bar, not a restaurant after all—and got rowdy quickly. Nick had indeed found a long-legged red head for me to take home with me later. She flittered with me shamelessly, and I returned it.

“So, I was looking through some files and you have no fuckin’ idea how _weird_ some of these cold cases are…” Nick slurred a bit, where he had tossed back a couple to many after a rejection from some just-turned-21 kid that had been trying to get me to flirt with him. He continued on and on with his conspiracy theories, but I had to piss too badly to really pay much attention. I’m sure he’ll regal me with the tale of his investigations later.

“’cuse me…” I said, standing, my voice only slightly slurred. Considering the amount of alcohol I’ve consumed, that is a definite feat.

With more effort than I'd like to admit to putting forth, I stumbled to the restroom, relieved myself, washed my hands, and began wandering back towards my friends when I was stopped by some guy. He was big, but I was too drunk to really focus on his features.

“You forgot this,” he said, after a minute of staring at me before he shoved a scarf-like thing at my face.

The first thing I thought when it was shoved into my face was how rude this guy was. Why didn’t he just hand it to me like a normal person? The next thought was that the scent on this scarf was positively delicious and I had to figure out what cologne it was—which led to the more confusing thought of WHY it smelled good enough to give me an erection if it was _my_ scarf.

I yanked it from my face, stared at it uncomprehendingly, trying to wrap my intoxicated mind around the questions floating around in my head lazily.

“I think you’re mistaken,” I said, glancing up at the guy who was still staring at me. “There’s no way this is mine. I’ve never smelt this cologne before… If I had, I’m sure I’d have remembered, it’s almost mouth-wateringly delicious.”

What I was sure was a smug expression came onto his face.

“Oh, well, it is not mine either, so why don’t you just keep it? I doubt anyone will come looking for it.” He replied before turning and striding off and disappearing into the crowd.

I blinked after him, and then shrugged, taking another long deep breath of the scar. My body hummed slightly and I wondered briefly if there was some kind of aphrodisiac that had been put on the scarf.

I wrapped it gingerly around my neck, figuring it didn’t matter to keep it or not, and it _was_ just a bit nippy outside.

I chatted up the red-head again—because she was about to leave with some wanna-be, but I am a much better catch, so I stopped that nonsense quickly enough—and we left after I waved good-bye to my friends.

The heady scent of the scarf drifted up to me every now and then and I found that keeping my hands and mouth to myself was a bit difficult. It didn’t help that my long-legged partner was so willing to stop so we could all but dry hump each other against the walls out in the middle of the street.

Maybe she got a whiff of the scarf as well… Of course, could just be she’s horny.

Didn’t matter, I was getting laid tonight, and would hopefully have a job by the end of the month. I could feel eyes on me and figured someone was enjoying the view of an enthusiastic “couple.”

We stumbled into my studio apartment—modest, but spacious; I was very particular when searching for a place to live—and started shucking closes like they were on fire, our mouths barely breaking from one another.

But something, I realized was very wrong. My previously enthusiastic erection waned and despite her enthusiastic attempts to liven it up, it just wilted further.

I was shell shocked, and could barely do more than watch her pull on her clothes and storm out angrily after slapping me—hard.

I looked down at my uninterested member and back at the door before letting out a stream of irritated curses. Well, it must’ve been a fluke. I had obviously been hard at the bar earlier and had been up until we started getting undressed.

Obviously, I had drank more than I’d realized, and the alcohol was catching up to me.

Glaring at nothing I flopped back onto my back, still naked, grumbling under my breath, I let close my eyes and just decide to sleep it off, curling under my blanket and not bothering to get dressed.


	3. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

_Derek_

The arrival of the Neroians in New York City at the end of the month was almost enough to shock me out of the depression that had descended upon me after that failed one-night stand. I’d—much to my later embarrassment—woken up no longer pacified by alcohol and whatever lingering cologne that had been stuck in my nose—and on the scarf I’d found later—and I’d had a bit of an anger fit. I’d tried picking up two more girls during the last couple of weekends and both times produced results even worse than the first one.

Talk about a hit to my confidence when I couldn’t get it up for a pretty woman and was called impotent and slapped. Needless to say, the Neroians’ arrival only slightly jarred me from the depression I’d slipped into…at the very least, it pushed it from the forefront of my mind, pleasantly replaced by the awe of seeing a spaceship hovering near the Empire State Building.

It was smaller than I thought it would be, but just like every other New Yorker outside of the biosphere I stood and gawked at the thing. It was the first time I’d seen it in person. Of course, I didn’t understand WHAT it was doing in New York exactly.

I shook my head. No! This wasn’t the time to actively think about that. I had a follow-up interview to attend and as interesting as the space ship was, I wasn’t going to let the damn thing make me late for this interview.

I ran my hand down the front of my suit, smoothing out all the imaginary wrinkles and then proceeded to hurry up and get to the company where I had the follow-up.

After the thirty minute interview, I was told to expect a call in the next 24 to 48 hours. If their human resource manager worked quickly, the interviewer had said, it could take a little as four hours. I was hoping it would take as little time as possible.

I stretched a bit, smoothed my suit one more time, and then proceeded to the grocery store to get some shopping done before I needed to change and head for work. I pulled the jacket off and loosened the tie as I walked and got a number of appreciative looks—apparently disheveled businessman was popular these days—and that did wonders for my confidence, helping pull me further from that bad mood I’d been in.

I went about my shopping as normal, but I should’ve known something would happen as soon as I stated picking at the vegetables. Something always happened when I shopped for vegetables. A shiver accompanied the intense feeling of being watched and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. It was such an incredible feeling I couldn’t resist turning to find who exactly was staring at me.

My eyes met sunglasses. Why the man—who was rather large, taller than my own 6’0” height by a good three to four inches even—was wearing sunglasses inside the store was about as confusing as why he was wearing so much clothing—the only skin on him visible was that of his face, even his neck was covered by a scarf—was a mystery to me, but I knew instantly that he was staring straight back at me.

I didn’t know _how_ I knew, but I did. It was like instinct.

 I blinked a bit in awe of the perfectly even sun-kissed honey color of his skin and the almost purple gleam of his black hair before I gave him a slightly confused look, shrugged and returned to looking at vegetables hoping that they guy wouldn’t come talk to me.

It was bad enough that he was so obviously checking me out—I didn’t know him so he wasn’t angry with me and the only other kind of stare that had that kind of intensity was one that I wasn’t used to guys giving me—but if he came over to flirt with me, he was going to be sorely disappointed. I may be okay with homosexuals—men and women alike—and really, I had no trouble admitting that a man was attractive—and this man would definitely fit the bill for the word—but it wasn’t because I had any interest in the same sex… it was because I was very comfortable with my own sexuality. I liked women. That’s all there was to it.

I was caught between a sigh of irritation and a grunt of surprise when I more or less _sensed_ the man start over to me before his footsteps—which were way too quiet for a man his size—came into hearing range. I really hoped he’d bugger off if I paid as little attention to him as possible and focused solely on the produce. No such luck.

The guy came over and he began flirting with me shamelessly in a voice that sounded like something from a school girl’s wet dream—which I knew because I have a close relationship with Nick’s younger sister, who is thankfully NOT a school girl—and I wished I was into guys, because I imagine he would’ve been exactly my type…

As it was, I’d done my experimenting back in high school years ago and didn’t really even pay attention to the words he was saying. What I did notice was his accent. I couldn’t exactly recognize what kind it was and there was just a general sense of “other” about him that I couldn’t exactly put my finger on. I supposed it didn’t matter much, so I just ignored the feeling.

“I’m sorry,” I said, cutting into his pick-up line mid-sentence—or what I assumed was a pick-up line—feeling only a little guilty for the rude interruption. “I’m sure you’re a great guy, but I’m really not interested in men… And while I’m tremendously flattered that you seem to find me attractive, I would greatly appreciate if you wouldn’t hit on me…”

From the way his eyebrows shot up and his jaw dropped, I imagined he was extremely shocked. Obviously, he was either unused to getting a reject—no matter how polite, it was still me telling him to buzz off—or he really thought I would be interested… Maybe my slight desperation from my failed attempts at one night stands was still obvious despite my little confidence boost on the way here.

“Ur…” I turned to look at him directly and frowned a bit, “Sorry, again.”

Why exactly was I the one apologizing? I gave him a challenging look when his eyebrows furrowed and he set his lips in an angry looking frown—he must not be used to rejection.

This seemed to only displease him more, but anything he was about to say was interrupted when someone else came into the store and cleared their throat, waiting patiently to be acknowledged.

He glanced at the man standing a few paces away—this new guy was even bigger than the one standing next to me—and heaved a sigh that sounded very put-upon.

“Right,” he grunted, sounding slightly sulky almost. He looked back at me and that intense feeling returned. I resisted the urge to turn tail and run from that look.

“Later,” he said to me, his voice holding the undertone of a warning before he moved past me towards the other man. As he passed a familiar—terribly arousing—scent hit my nose and I barely stopped myself from asking what cologne he was wearing. I really just wanted to put some distance between the two of us.

For now, I pushed the creepy warning from my mind and decided to focus on more pressing matters… namely, dinner. I had enough time to get home, make a nice dinner and eat before getting ready to go to work… but that was only if I could manage to figure out if I wanted the broccoli or the spinach…

It turned out that I was in a broccoli mood for the evening and I’d just finished cooking when my bracer chimed and I answered, expecting Nick or Rhody to flash up on the holoscreen. It was neither. On the screen was the interviewer I’d met earlier that day and I blinked in surprise.

“Derek?” he asked, smiling slightly at me. “You busy per chance?”

“No sir,” I replied, completely disregarding the good smelling food on the table and the rumble in my stomach.

“Excellent! If that’s the case, you need to swing by the office and pick up the employment and documentary chips. You’ll be able to start next week provided you get all the documentation turned in by the second.” He said, grinning.

The second was three days from now. I could definitely do that. I wanted to jump for joy I’d finally gotten a job.

“Thank you so much!” I said, mentally pumping my fist, “I’ll be there in half an hour.”

“Good, see you then.” And with that, he clicked off the call.

I nearly jumped for joy. I know I probably only got the job because the company was a bit desperate—it was small and couldn’t offer a ton of benefits—but it was a foot in the door and after gaining a year or two of experience there and proving that I was more than a piss-poor personality and an engineering degree I’d be able to move on to bigger better things.

Feeling better than I had all month—today had been a very good day—I hurried out of my apartment and rushed over to the company completely ignoring supper. I didn’t exactly have time to get to my soon-to-be place of employment and then get back and ready before hurrying to my current place of employment without pushing the limits of fashionably late, so food was no longer an option for tonight.

I got over there in record time and after apologizing for having to leave without being able to talk properly, I bolted and was stripping before I closed the door to change into my work clothes. Pausing only to carefully set down the chips that held all the documents I’d need to fill out and sign to gain legal employment.

I was on my way to work without even giving myself a moment to look longingly at the food I abandoned. Oh but how I wanted to… even if only for a mere moment.

Which was one of the reasons why I forced myself to move much faster than I normally did…I needed to get away from the temptation of “it’ll only take a minute” before I messed up my punctuality.

Even if I had a good excuse as to WHY I was late, I highly doubted it would smooth over my earlier than professional resignation .Typically, we still kept with the two-week notice, but as it was, my soon-to-be employer didn’t seem to care much about that and I was going to have to turn in a later-than-I’d-like notice.

I was too busy to really care about the niggling feeling I got in the back of my mind as I slipped into the employee entrance of my workplace and went to find the manager before I started work—not only to apologize for being a few minutes late, but also to explain my new situation.

As I suspected, my manager was very displeased with the news. She was more concerned, however, with where she was going to find another—and this is a direct quote—“sexy older man type” rather than the fact that I was putting in my notice late…

I was just happy that she didn’t mind letting me work a little extra until I quit so that I could save up a little extra money to make sure that I had plenty until I started getting better pay.

The shop was busier than normal tonight… it was buzzing with hopeful women and men who wanted more than anything to see one of the Neroians even though they were all aware that the chances of ever seeing one were slim to none. I focused on each of my costumers intently, basking them with more affection than usual, but remaining mysterious as for the reason. I would tell them tomorrow. For now, mystery would intrigue them, and then when I ‘came clean’ tomorrow, they would be hooked into coming more in the next couple of days.

Feeling like it had been a good day—aside from that weird incident in the store—I left work, having chosen not to bring my last client home this time—though it was normal for us to go get it on from time to time after she visited, but I wasn’t feeling up to it tonight for some reason.

It was about four in the morning and I was exhausted as normal stumbling off towards my apartment. I got a weird feeling in the back of my mind and my hairs stood on end seconds before something—possibly a hand—covered my mouth and nose. I didn’t even have time to struggle before I inhaled some unfamiliar scent—definitely nothing I could recognize—and was out like a light.


	4. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that took so long. :( Life happened as it is prone to. Anyway, sexy stuff should start in the next chapter. Hopefully you'll like it. :) Also... this chapter isn't as good, I think as the other chapters. But that's because I still haven't got a lot of the kinks for the Neroians (I'm always spelling it Neorian, so please forgive that if you happen to notice it...) worked out. Should be good still though, and hopefully the upcoming smut will make up for it.

_Chapter Three_

_Yuvile_

“He smells like my mate. But that is no Omega build. At the best, he’ll be a beta.” I grumbled to Ansilu, my highest ranking beta and best friend since birth. “Are the oracles on the Moon of Neroia playing some sort of trick on me? Our mates are supposed to be perfect counter parts.”

“I told you he did not look like an Omega when you asked me to deliver the scarf to him to start the adjustment.” Ansilu said in reply, his eyebrows furrowing in that way that told me he was glaring—though we were both wearing sunglasses to hide our brightly colored eyes from the humans, since contact with them was theoretically outlawed by the human’s governments. “But he is definitely your mate. The Oracles don’t play tricks. Their gifts are too great and their lives too short for such things.”

“Of course… But what do they expect me to do with him? I need children. And even if I find him attractive, if he cannot produce them for me…”

“If he cannot have children then it is by the will of the Moon and nothing more.” Ansilu said his voice frustrated with me.

“You’re right again, Ansilu. If you were not my best friend, I think it would be bad for my reputation for you to be right more often than me.” I said with a little chuckle. “I’m going to talk with him… Come in and fetch me when it is time for that meeting with the human government.”

“You really—”

Before he could finish that sentence I was gone, entering the store and going off to look at something else within line of sight of him. Observing him a little while making sure he would notice me. It was unfortunate I had to be covered up in all of these clothes. That was the worst part about finding out your mate is human—I’d never believed my advisors before. On Neroia, you had to woo your mate using your appearance and natural talents.

It was implied that they would love you anyway—that’s how mates worked after all—but it was more to show that you were willing to go the extra mile to prove that it was more than just the call to mate that attracted you and that there was more to be attracted to then just instinct—which made for passionate sex, but an awkward love life.

He looked up at me and I smiled. He didn’t seem to realize he was drawn to me, but I could smell the change in his scent immediately. It was already different from where he’d been exposed to my scent—he was becoming more Neroian than human, but he wouldn’t make any noticeable change until we bonded—but my scent alone was far different from my physical presence.

I went over to him—a man on a mission, as they say—and started doing the first step of the human version of wooing: flirting. He gave me a completely disinterested look! I bumped it up a notch, making sure I was just close enough he could scent me—I’m Neroian, after all, and sense of smell is important, so it was a rather unconscious move on my part.

I smirked broadly when I scented the faintest hint of arousal. It wasn’t as intense as I’d been hoping—in fact this whole encounter was turning out to be rather dull compared to the typical first meeting between a pair of mates—but it was something: a sure sign that he was indeed physically attracted to me, even if he didn’t realize it himself.

“I’m sorry,” he said, breaking in mid-sentence. I blinked at him in surprise—and very nearly outrage. “I’m sure you’re a great guy, but I’m really not interested in men… And while I’m tremendously flattered that you seem to find me attractive, I would greatly appreciate if you wouldn’t hit on me…”

I couldn’t help the shock on my face, my jaw dropping. Did he—my OMEGA mate—just shoot me down? He didn’t even give me more of a reaction then slight arousal—and as I said before, it was nothing compared to what it was SUPPOSED to be!

 “Ur… Sorry again,” he said, and I was furious. A mere half-hearted apology was not going to sooth the unwelcome wave of hurt and rejection that he’d caused—probably completely unknowingly.

His look of challenge made my Alpha-blood boil and it was all I could do not to pick him up and carry him off right then and there to teach him proper manners.

I was about to—politely—tell him that he had—everything—nothing to be sorry about and a few other things that I probably shouldn’t say when I heard Ansilu clear his throat from the entrance to the store. I didn’t want to just LEAVE my mate alone. It went against my very nature as an Alpha to do that… but there was only so much I could do about my responsibilities to my people.

I sighed and then feeling very put out grumbled, “Right…”

I looked back at Derek as if it were the last time I’d see him—thankfully it would not be—and tried to memorize all of him that I could. I couldn’t keep the promise out of my tone when I said, “Later.”

As I walked passed him, his arousal spiked and it was all I could do to keep walking with that scent in my nose.  We got outside and into the human car Ansilu had finally learned to operate—the things were rather different from the technology of Neroia.

“That went horribly. He’s is definitely my mate… but have you EVER heard of a mate—even a human one—dismissing their partner?” I demanded angrily, glaring at the dashboard as he drove towards the place where I would be meeting my mate’s government.

“Maybe you should’ve touched him. I know it’s not common courtesy among humans, but if you’d have offered your hand and introduced yourself…” Ansilu said, “Then you could have done that thing the humans do in greeting… a handshake. I imagine that would’ve done better than just your scent.”

“I could barely leave him without touching him, Ansilu, if I had touched him, I might’ve taken him then and there. That is not what I wish.” I replied, with a shake of my head as we approached the building over which our ship hovered. “Perhaps it is his age? Do human men become less… interested as they get older?”

“I doubt that, Yuvile… He was quite eager to take home that red head the night I gave him that scarf. Especially, when he got the scarf… since drunk he had no qualms being easily excited when he smelled it.”

“You let him go home and bed someone?” I half-growled ready to start something.

“She did not stay long enough for him to bed her, don’t fret. She stormed out looking rather displeased. I’m assuming he took off the scarf and couldn’t become erect for her. He was very pleased with your scent.”

“He did get rather aroused when I walked past him…” I huffed, pacified with his words.

“Yes, while he doesn’t seem to be attracted so much to you—yet,” he began, making sure to add yet quickly as I had opened my mouth to snap at him about this comment, “he is strongly attracted to your scent. Use it to help you get close to him, and then you can work your way into his heart as a proper mate should.”

“But if he is not yet attracted to me, how will I be able to bond with him?”

“You’ll have to wait.”

I stared at him as if he had grown an extra set of arms and another head.

“Are you serious, Ansilu?”

“Of course I am. He won’t make you wait long I’m sure, since he is your one and only mate.” Ansilu replied, a little smile on his lips. I shook my head and pulled off my sunglasses, scarf and the human clothing that covered my Neroian clothing.

“I am glad I have you for my Lead Beta, Ansilu. I would be very distressed without you.”

“Of course you would, Yuvile.” Ansilu said and then with a chuckle added, “You’ve been saying that since we were small.”

“Still, what if he were to be a beta? I know you are not quite as volatile as an Alpha would be—and thank god THAT is impossible—but still… I was honestly hoping for a… submissive mate.”

“I do not wish to discuss your sexual preferences, Yuvile.” Ansilu said and his voice gave away his eye roll.

“And why is that all of a sudden? I remember a time when you couldn’t keep your nose out of my business… and it all led to some rather interesting situations.” I shot back, with a pleased smirk on my face as we arrived at the building.

“That was well before you were told of your mate.” He replied, completely seriously, and then after a moment said, “You got into many interesting situations by yourself as well. I seem to remember being dragged unwillingly into most of them.”

“You loved it, admit it.” I said, stepping out of the car before he could say a thing, pulling on a serious, regal façade for the humans.

After a short moment, Ansilu hurried around the car to stand next to me, wearing his formal Neroian attire. He leaned slightly towards me, his bright green eyes shining, and keeping his face carefully neutral as we were escorted to the place where the meeting would be held, whispered, “I did love it.”

It was all I could do to keep from busting out laughing at it. My lips twitched into a smile at the effort, though I did try to keep them set in a frown as to seem older than my 70 cycles—about 22 human years give or take a few ‘months’.

“How many meetings did they schedule for me?” I asked him, trying for a serious tone. Ansilu looked amused as we entered the building. Shaking both our bodies a little, we released the small amount of magic we had and the features we had to hide reappeared—wolf ears, a wolf tail each, claws, and fangs. I twitched my ears a bit. It always felt strange to hide them, especially for prolonged periods of time.

“Two, each are scheduled for around three hours apiece with a two hour break in between.” Ansilu replied, quickly and efficiently, like the great Lead Beta that he is—though I _loathe_ (not really) pointing out that he was also twitching his ears and tail. “The first one is mainly updates on the situation and different things of that nature. The second meeting is the renewal negotiations.”

I nodded, but internally I was hitting my head against a wall in frustration. I didn’t want to sit through six hours’ worth of boring meetings with those old prunes my father had talked of. Well, that, I suppose, was my responsibility now that my father had passed his crown to me, and I would have to live with it.

I entered the meeting room and was not disappointed. They really were all old people—old by my standards at least.

“I am Yuvile, Alpha King of Neroia, and Son of Alcodo, the previous Alpha King.” I said in way of greeting, giving a small bow, spreading my left hand over the right side of my chest. My father had been a beta—an increasingly common occurrence—but had been a Strong Beta—the closest thing to an Alpha anyone other than an actual Alpha could be—and had earned the respect of the Alpha’s he ruled and thus been able to earn his title ‘Alpha King’. “I will tell you ahead of time… I am an ALPHA. I am not a Beta like my father. Please choose your words carefully, and I will do the same.”

Ansilu bowed next, mimicking my actions. If he’d been bowing to me, he’d have shown his neck as well, but since he was only bowing to the human’s it was not necessary… it was a sign of respect given only to the one with title of Alpha King.

“This is my Lead Beta, Ansilu. Treat him with the same courtesy you would show me and he will do the same.” I said, motioning to him. We both straightened up and sat in the seats indicated by a woman at the table.

“We may begin the meeting whenever you are ready.” I said, giving a little smile.

The meeting went as I’d expected. I was bored out of my mind by the second welcome speech made by some man next to the “president”.  These humans liked to use fancy, redundant language, and it was growing tedious. By the time the first meeting was over, I was ready to leave and starving. By the end of the second meeting, I was furious.

“Why do they continue to refuse our request to reveal ourselves to their people?” I demanded angrily of Ansilu who merely shook his head, a look I knew well on his face. “Do not shake your head at me when you have a theory, Ansilu, I am in no mood.”

“It is a theory without foundation, Yuvile I do not wish to burden you with it.” Ansilu said a silent plea in his voice. “Allow me merely to investigate it further… I will tell you when we leave in the morning… After you’ve had ample time to court your mate, of course… if it pleases you?”

“It doesn’t. Ansilu, you know that I will not take action blindly even if you tell me.” I replied, calming down at that as he rarely uses such a tone, “I may be an Alpha, but I am not a thoughtless beast. If it is troubling you so that you wish to investigate it, I wish you to tell me, not as your king, but as your friend since childhood.”

“Do you swear not to act on it?” he asked. I nodded and he continued. “Then let us make arrangements to collect your mate… I fear this will be a long conversation and it should do to keep you occupied until he wakes.”

I nodded in acceptance of this term. As his friend, I couldn’t force him to tell me then… as long as he promised to tell me when we both had time. He was the best friend I could’ve asked for. After all, he knew it would make it easier for me not to act on whatever he was going to say—which probably meant it was serious—when my mate would be within my reach.

After an interesting incident where I all but exploded at the man sent to retrieve my mate—he’d been way too rough for him, and I was beginning to think somehow the man I’d sent was actually an alpha and not a beta though he smelled like one—Ansilu sat me down for the conversation.

Well, he tried to keep me seated, but I was anxious to go speak to my mate without the obstructive clothing… that and the things Ansilu suggested were… chilling.

We both tried to play it off as paranoia. To think that the human’s governments would work to betray us when we’d not only saved them but had been peaceful with them… it was an uncomfortable thought. And Ansilu was right to have asked me not to act on it. As much as the thought of betrayal bothered me, I couldn’t just accuse anyone without proof…

“Stay here, Ansilu. Choose any of my guard to accompany you… Do you wish for your brother to stay as well? He’s an unmated Omega… And until I can bond with my own mate, I will have no time to watch over him. Is there any Betas you trust?”

“He will stay with me, if that is fine, Yuvile.” Ansilu said, not needing me to tell him WHY he was to stay. “He is all the company I will take from you… We are more than enough. I trust no other with my brother until his mate comes along.”

“Alright,” I said with a small nod, looking towards the door to my bedchambers. “You will contact us with anything you discover or if you’re in need of aid. The trip is a month long, so be careful. It worries me enough that I will be without you.”

“Your mate will balance you out. It will be fine even without me.”

“Thank you.” I said, and smiled, teasingly. “If the Oracles tell me of your mate, I’ll send news to you immediately.”

“Yes,” Ansilu said, though he looked resigned to remaining without a mate.

“Come now, Ansilu! Everyone has a mate in this life.”

“Yes, but it’s beginning to be harder to find them since so many seem to be on other planets.” He said, “If it hadn’t of been for the Oracles, we would never have found Earth and our race would’ve died out… But the Oracles are shrinking in number. They are dying younger and younger… though the level of power has changed very little in most of them…”

“Stop,” I said, frowning at the reminder. “I do not wish to talk about this tonight… When you return, we can discuss such sorrows… But until then, I want to enjoy the time I spend with my mate.”

“Yes, sorry… Good luck.” Ansilu stood and embraced me. “May the Moons bless your union, as I’m sure you’ll be mated long before I can see you again.”

I returned the embrace tightly, loathing to let him leave my side, but at the same time eager to awaken Derek. “Thank you, Ansilu. I’ll see you again soon…”

“Go on then. He should be waking up any minute now. He’ll be angry enough as it is, I’m sure.” He said with a chuckle.

I nodded and he left and headed towards the ship’s teleport deck. I, on the other hand, stood still for a moment before looking at the door to my room where I knew Derek was unconscious—I would say _sleeping_ but the bastard who had brought him to me hadn’t put him to sleep, properly, and had to knock him out after Derek woke up—and felt nervous excitement unfurl in my stomach.

He was much older than me, and there were many things about him that really confused me—why was he my mate? Of all the many people that there are on Earth and the few that are on Neroia… why was it an older man with such a dominant personality?

I shook the thought away. Why did it matter? We were mates. Regardless of all other factors, when it boiled down to it, we would be able to work together. We’d be perfect for each other in the end…even if it took a lot of work to get to that point.

Feeling more encouraged, and eager to get to Derek, I pushed open the door. I nearly started laughing at the position he’d wormed himself into.

He was on his back, sprawled out across the bed taking up as much space as he could, snoring ever so slightly—even with my hearing I could _just_ barely hear it—his lips parted slightly. Even though he was just a little smaller than me in his build, he was much shorter and he looked almost like a little kid sprawled out sleeping like he was. He seemed to be pretty out of it still—I was seriously going to kill the guy we’d sent later—so I chanced to move closer, unable to resist the temptation as I took him in.

He really looked more like an Omega like this… I ran my fingers through his hair carefully, enjoying the feeling of the soft black strands tickling my skin. For a second I was delighted as he nuzzled against my hand but then his brows furrowed and he made a grumbling noise and I pulled my hand away. He was about to wake up and the last thing I wanted was to make him any madder than he was likely to be by touching him without his consent…

It was hard to pull away—especially when he seemed to dislike it just as much as me—but I knew it was for the best… As he woke up, I could smell the faintest hints of arousal, which intensified as he took in a breath and rolled over—towards me, though I doubted it was on purpose—onto his side.

His hand snaked up and rubbed the back of his head in discomfort—I barely contained my growl, that must be where the bastard hit him when he woke up –his expression one of discomfort though he didn’t open his eyes for a long moment.


	5. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> QAN: Okay so first off, SO SORRY that this is really late... I've been in a bit of a slump. I seem to be out of it... but who's to say for sure... that is also the reason the chapter is a little... rushed? Anyways... I am not sure if it's really dubious consent. I didn't want to put them in a situation where logically, Derek would HATE Yuvile after everything, but he isn't exactly the give in type... he may see a bit docile in this chapter, but I can't stand the idea of him just lying back and taking it... so I'll give you the warning for DUBIOUS CONSENT in this chapter and maybe in the next chapter (just in case). And I thought it was a good place to break for a character POV swap, so... I think the real smut will be in the next chapter.  
> Also thanks for leaving me reviews and kudos, they make me happy. I just am really bad at replying to them, because I never know what to say. :/ Just know that anytime someone gives me a good review I get all teary eyed and the kudos make me squeal in delight. <3 So even if I don't say anything, I'm happy. I'll stop rambling now. Enjoy the tease. :)

_Chapter Four_

_Derek_

I woke up unhappily, to say the least. I felt like I’d been bashed over the head with something. One thing that made it more pleasant was the scent in the air. I took a deeper breath to fill my lungs with the scent, the pain in my head the only thing keeping me from shivering at the sensation.

I kept my eyes closed as I tried to recall what had happened and why my room smelled like this… though this bed was a lot softer than the one in my apartment. I rubbed my fingers over the center of pain on the back of my head as I rolled on my side, wishing I could enjoy this weird experience of oversensitivity.

I’d turned in my notice and worked as normal… then I’d started going home. It’d all been pretty normal. A relatively tame night, compared to some… despite all the buzz about the Neroians.

I’d not been feeling up for my normal rendezvous with my last customer… I’d started on my way home and then I’d gotten attacked by someone… Well, I say attacked, but it’s more like I was very nearly instantly knocked out.

I grasped at the fuzzy image of coming to in some room and see some blurry shape that may or may not have been a person and then was out again when said blurry shape had hit me… which explained the knot on the back of my head that is likely to cause me immense pain for the next few hours and it made me dread opening my eyes…

But if I’d been kidnapped, then _this_ surely wasn’t my room and I knew this scent from only two places… that damn scarf—that I will never admit aloud to keeping—and that guy who’d hit on me in the store… I could take a guess at where this was going and I didn’t like it in the slightest.

I took a deep calming breath trying to prepare myself for whatever was about to happen—and realized that was stupid, but that cologne or whatever had to be laced with _something_ because nothing should be that arousing, especially in this situation.

I heard the rustle of fabric and tensed up, eyes popping open even though I hadn’t been prepared yet and even though I’d been expecting it, it didn’t change my reaction. I gave a startled yelp to find the guy from the store—his eyes were freaking glowing blood red, and he had ears. I was not expecting ears… or fangs—staring at me intently.

“For fuck’s sake, what the hell?” I half-screamed, trying to calm the rabbit-fast beating of my heart as I stared at him, inching back too bothered to take in the space I was in with this guy standing so close to me. He was only wearing a pair of bizarre skin-tight pants and some sort of arm/torso pieces and the white markings that curled around his neck and down his body would’ve been attractive—if he were a woman, because I’ve established that I don’t like men and this guy _kidnapped me_.

“Derek,” he said, as if this was totally a normal situation. “I know this seems alarming but please calm down… I’ll explain everything to you.”

“Calm down?” I demanded raising an eyebrow at him, “What exactly are you going to explain to me? You _kidnapped_ me. That’s _illegal_ and so many kinds of wrong that I’m surprised _you’re_ not freaking out!”

I refused to admit that while I really should be terrified of this whole situation, I wasn’t even a little scared. In fact, I felt… safe? And very aroused.

The more I breathed in the worse that got, I just wanted to press my face against the source of this smell—and the longer I sit here thinking about it, the more I’m starting to worry that it’s this guy’s natural body odor and that’s just not a good train of thought—and never let go… or have sex with it. But again, with the not attracted to guys thing.

That didn’t seem to matter to my body though as my eyes continuously dropped down to trace the white marks that stood out so much against his tan skin. I jerked my eyes back up and he looked torn between pleased and agitated.

“I will admit, that the methods your government makes us use isn’t… ideal… but it’s definitely not the same as kidnapping. It’s completely sanctioned. I don’t wish to get into those details at the moment…” he said, waving his hand a bit to dismiss the argument and his eyes raked over me and I all but slapped my hand over the knot on the back of my head so I’d wince instead of shiver under that look.

“Oh god, I’ve gone crazy.” I shook my head.

“No, Derek,” the man—wolfman?—climbed onto the bed and crawled towards me, I crawled backwards—a little unsteady what with the uncomfortable bulge in my pants and the pain that’s still making my head throb—until I reach the end of the bed and I’m very much planning to fall off and get the hell out of here, but he just wraps his hand around my wrist and yanks me back… and this time I can’t fight the shiver off. “You are not crazy. Now let me explain this to you.”

The skin where he was touching was tingling and hot and the tingling made me want to squirm a bit, but I resisted the temptation only just, though I wasn’t sure if I could handle it for much longer. He didn’t seem inclined to release me… I let it stay for now—because it was best to just listen to the crazy guy, and not because it was a nice kind of squirming and tingling. Definitely not.

“Fine,” I say and open my mouth to continue but a look where his eyes glow particularly fiercely makes me clench my jaw shut and glare back at him.

This was way too far out of my comfort zone—and I’m still in denial that I don’t feel in danger, I’m just going to assume it’s _shock_ that I’m experiencing at the moment.

“I am Yuvile, the Alpha King of Neroia and you, Derek are my mate, as predicted by the Oracles on the Youngest Moon of Neroia,” he said, his face deathly serious, though one of his black wolf ears twitches a bit and I feel this itching need to touch it to see if it’s _real_.

And then his words register with me and I give him my best ‘you’re-shitting-me-right?’ look and shake my head. “O-kay, so _you’re_ the delusional one. Or maybe we’re both delusional.”

He growls a little, looking… hurt.

“What will it take for me to convince you that neither of us are delusional?”

“I...” I have no clue. What was I supposed to do? My eyes drift back up to his ears. “Are your ears real? That’s one step in the right—weird—direction.”

“Of course they are,” and he looks torn between something that looks an awful lot like fond amusement and more agitation. “You can feel if you like… as my mate, you have that privilege.”

“I’m starting to think you don’t mean ‘mate’ as in friend…” I grumble, though I reach over and touch his ears regardless. They twitch, but they’re soft and feel just like a dog’s—or a wolf’s, I couldn’t be sure. I tug a bit, and he makes a low growl but it doesn’t sound exactly agitated. I remove my hand from him anyway, because either way that’s not something I’m getting into.

“By mate, I mean you are my… how do humans put it… Soul mate? Destined lover?” he asks, scrunching up his nose a bit. “Anyway, you are my True Mate. And I have come so that we can bond.”

“Didn’t I mention earlier that I am not interested? I’m pretty sure I said I wasn’t interested.” I said quickly making a move to get away from him again. My rational side was ringing alarm bells while the rest of me—mostly my body—was feeling the need to just go for it… If his hand felt like that on my wrist—I crushed that thought under foot thoroughly before it could even develop. I wasn’t going there.

“You can tell me you’re not ‘interested’ all you want, but your body is saying otherwise. Your arousal is thick in the air and it’s not like your erection isn’t obvious.” Yuvile said, tightening his hold on my wrist his eyes flashing half angrily, and again with the hurt. “Why are you denying it?”

“Because I am not going to jump on the homosexual bandwagon just because _you_ seem to have the mistaken impression that I’m your _soul mate,_ ” I replied in frustration, and made an alarmed noise when he pinned me to the bed before I could even blink. There was a lot of anger in the glowing red eyes glaring down at me and I knew immediately that it was fueled by hurt and I was so confused. “I’m sorry, but I just… I don’t believe in soul mates. I don’t believe in true love. And I’m not going to start because you want me to. I’m sorry that you seem to think that, but—”

His growl grows louder with each word and eventually I just cut off because he looks like he’s about to get a little too not-friendly—because I’m assuming that he’s a lot stronger than he looks and while I’m not weak or anything, my bones can only stand so much pressure before breaking and I’d just rather avoid that right now.

“You are very dense.” He snaps. “I know you can scent that I’m your mate. You’ve already adjusted enough that you should be attuned to it. So why are you lying about it?”

“What’s that supposed to mean? What do you mean adjusted?” I asked, shifting, because he was right and I could scent something, but it’s not like I could understand it. It was confusing to find a _smell_ so damn arousing. So right. It wasn’t something _I_ planned to admit to anytime soon.

“Your anatomy is get readying to become a Neroian. Well, as much of one as you can. You will get the magic, but the lupine features will be absent. But when we bond, you’ll become my Omega… or Beta.” He seemed to add the last reluctantly.

“You do realize that this is going so far over my head that I… I can’t even…” I trailed off, not liking the sound of it at all. “What did you do to me?”

“I didn’t do anything. It’s your body’s natural response to the scent of your mate. Me,” he said, “I wish to woo you properly, Derek, please allow me that honor.”

“Haha, no,” I said, trying to keep the slight shudder out of voice at the thought—obviously something had changed.

“I will bond with you Derek,” Yuvile says and he looks like he wants to say so many things and yeah, suddenly I can smell _his_ arousal and the things that does to my mind are things I can’t even begin to comprehend. “I want to be gentle with you, but I’m an Alpha and if you keep challenging me that way I’m not sure I can be. You are my precious mate and I want to treat you as such…”

There is an implied please at the end of that sentence and I’m feeling like I’m hanging on by a really thin thread—like sewing thread thin—and it’s both terrifying and exhilarating. He is staring intently at me, his pupils blow wide suddenly as he watches me. And I’m almost afraid to think what I must look like to cause that reaction.

“Do you not wish for me to be gentle with you?” he asks, his voice low, rough, almost a growl.

“I… don’t want to just jump into something like this.” I said, my voice coming out a lot huskier than I’d thought it would and if that’s not an embarrassingly clear sign that this random guy who is claiming to be my soul mate is pushing the right buttons then the erection that’s becoming painful between my legs probably is. “What’s being bonded mean? What are you expecting from me?”

He’s looking impatient, but not as agitated by the fact that I’m asking. I suppose he’s taking it as encouragement, I’m not dismissing him completely.

“Bonding means that we’d tie our souls together as mates for the rest of our natural lives,” he said and he looked like he was about to say more but that was a lot of commitment.

“No.” I said, and something inside of me twisted uncomfortably… like I’d just denied something that was part of me. “I’m not into guys and I’m definitely not going to tie my soul to one for the rest of my life, so no.”

“Why? Why are you so against it? It is not the physical dislike for me, you’re obviously aroused, Derek!” Yuvile growls, dropping his head to my neck, “If it an emotional connection you wish for before the bonding then, I will be more than happy to wait patiently while we become acquainted…”

“Do you not understand the word ‘no’?” I asked, trying and failing to jerk my wrists out from under him. He growls, but now I’m pissed off so I ignore it. “Now get off.”

“No.” Yuvile growls and I feel teeth—and not _human_ teeth either—scrapping at my neck and I am almost horrified that instead of tensing up and feeling fear, I practically go lip in his arms and give a kind of half-moan. “I want to be gentle with you, Derek. But I am going to bond with you. You are my mate. I am your mate. If you don’t wish for me to take the time to woo you, then I will bond with you right now.”

And that should not be so arousing, but there is a low growling/slurred quality to his voice that actually makes me whimper a bit—not that I will ever openly admit to making that noise—and he shudders above me, running his teeth over my neck again.

“I will take that as a yes.” He said, and he released one of my wrists and ran his fingers down my arm in a barely there touch and suddenly there were claws that were just barely prickling at my skin and I shuddered before I could stop myself, and I am pretty sure I should be protesting or pushing him off or even punching him but he starts kissing on my neck and my brain just kind of turns to goop in my head.

I really should’ve asked what an Omega or a Beta was but something tells me that he doesn’t have any more patience to deal with me… and I can’t exactly blame him if all the scents in the air are as potent to him as they are to me. I imagine that if I believed in this mate stuff as much as he did, I’d probably have given in around the time he grabbed my wrist.

“Do you want to know all the things that I want to do with you?” his mouth was at my ear now and his sex voice was seriously making me rethink my entire life.

“I want to know if there is some aphrodisiac in whatever cologne your wearing,” I managed to get out through a moan as he used his claws to slice my shirt opened—thank god it wasn’t one of my favorites—and I was beginning to realize I shouldn’t antagonize the man with claws at my chest and fangs at my neck.

“That is my natural scent, Derek,” he nipped at my earlobe and my hips jerked up completely involuntarily. “You find it arousing because I’m your mate… why do you think you all couldn’t get hard for the woman you took home after you got the scarf? Your body _recognized_ my scent…Just as my body recognizes yours.”

He pushed his hips down against mine and his matching hard on rubbed against mine and I moaned, pushing up against his more on instinct than actual thought. My logical side had pretty much thrown in the towel at this point.

He sits up some and yanks the scraps of my ruined shirt off me and is back on me before I can blink twice. He presses his mouth against mine, but I stubbornly try and keep my mouth closed, this resistance drops as soon as I feel his claws tickling over my collarbone and I give a little gasp. He pushes his tongue in and dominates my mouth, and I can feel his tongue on every inch of the inside of my mouth and all I’m doing is moaning into it.

I know I’ve never been a particularly dominate guy, but this whole, submissive thing isn’t generally my style and if I’m going to do it anyway, I might as well do it the way I want to…


	6. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha! I've finally earned my explicit rating. Be warned, here be porn. And only porn. You can skip it if you want. Though there are some fun character interactions that would be sad to miss. But whatever. Enjoy.
> 
> Sorry it was so late. I got distracted by this horrible thing called life and well... ya know how that goes. >:P

_Derek_

So, this was all kinds of wrong. I knew that, logically, but then again, right now I wasn’t thinking with my upstairs brain. No… lust was fueling me and I figured I could at least get this shit out of my system and see about how to get out of it later… though, that bonding shit sounded rather… permanent.

“No…bonding,” I groaned against his mouth, before using his moment of surprise to flip him underneath me. I’d never done this with a guy before… but how much different could it be than with a woman? “I’ll…. I’ll do something later, I can’t remember what.”

Yuvile’s grin was almost blinding and at the same time nearly feral. Like he was so excited that he thought I was actually considering it—I’m not, some part of me said resolutely—and at the same time was generally excited at the thought of fucking me.

It was like he’d won somehow… not that he had. But now wasn’t the time for thinking rationally.

He surged up and I found myself straddling his laps as he slammed his mouth against mine and I pushed him back down with a little growl of my own, pinning him down and kissing him at my own pace. He growled against my mouth but it sounded almost pleased.

“I’m not making promises, Derek.” He said, grinding his hips up. “If you beg for it, I’m going to give it to you.”

I snorted and bit his neck, leaving a gorgeous hickey, if I said so myself… which I did. He gave a small groan and jerked his hips up again.

“I don’t beg,” I said, matter-of-factly… well, as matter-of-factly as I could with my breath coming in excited pants. “Now get undressed.”

“You didn’t beg.” He replied, smirking up at me as I leaned up to fumble with the buckle of my pants, like he was going to make sure I begged for it… whatever ‘it’ was. “But I will not make promises I can’t keep…especially to you.”

“Now isn’t the time to be discussing your ethics. Did you want to fuck or not? Because I swear, I will jack myself off if you don’t shut it.”

Yuvile’s pupils got impossibly wider and a flush tinted his cheeks as if he was testing the image before he shook his head and started tugging off clothes. I shimmied out of my pants and boxers, completely self-assured in my appearance—even if I was feeling a little inadequate when I saw the size of his cock… some guys just have all the luck apparently.

“Isn’t there a rule that you can’t be rich, attractive, and have a big cock?” I grumbled, leaning down to suck another hickey into the other man’s neck.

I worked my way down, but he flipped us over before I had a chance to do much and his mouth found my collarbone. The scent of arousal in the room was making me light-headed again and my skin felt hot and his mouth was even hotter against me. He licked my nipples, but I just gave a grunt—they weren’t actually that sensitive, but I guess I’d never really had anyone else play with them before—and he seemed to sense that wasn’t doing it for me and moved on, kissing, licking, and biting at every inch of skin until he got to my happy trail that led down to the neatly trimmed patch of hairs at the base of my throbbing erection.

He nuzzled the happy trail, taking deep breaths with every inch of skin he explored, until he was kissing up my cock. I groaned, trying to lift my hips at the first lick he gave the head, but he pushed my hips back down. I made a frustrated sound as he completely bypassed my erection after only a few little kisses.

“What the hell are yo—” I broke off as he pushed my legs up and back bending me in half. I was about to object when his mouth brushed my balls and then I felt something warm and wet—his tongue, my brain belated informed me—push gently at my rim. I jerked a bit with a surprised noise. Apparently I was much more sensitive there than my nipples… “Why the fuck…do you think I’m going to be your… damn bottom?”

“ _Mine_ ,” he grunted in reply sounding entirely too pleased before going back to doing whatever was sending little sparks of pleasure up my spine. It wasn’t intense or anything, but it wasn’t bad either.

“Who the fuck… belongs to you?” I grunted in replied, arching my back when a damp finger wiggled in to join the tongue, though it was able to reach further inside me giving me a weird sense of having something in me.

“ _Mine,_ ” he growled, the reverberations running up my spine.

“Fuck,” I gasped out. What the hell was _happening_ here? What had happened to all that resisting? I clamped my jaw shut and jerked as a second finger, this time with something a little thicker than just spit on it, joined the first and the tongue disappeared. I refused to be disappointed. That… that is probably where all that resistance had gone… even if the guy was delusional for thinking we were mates, he at least had some reasoning for it, if it felt like this every time we touched.

He kissed my balls briefly before his mouth was on my cock again, causing me to jerk my hips to try to get deeper into the warmth. I had always liked blow jobs. His fingers slipped in and out, going a little deeper each time until I felt the tip of one brush against something that had me crying out despite my attempts at biting my tongue to keep it in.

He made a noise that sounded like the wolf-version of a purr—a sort of rumbling—that sent vibrations through my erection and made me let out a broken noise of pleasure. A third finger nudged its way in and I gave a grunt of discomfort at the stretch, but my body seemed to be adjusting well for this being the first time—not counting that awkward time in high school when I’d gotten a little curious about my own anatomy, I was only human after all—something had been inside there.

It probably helped that he was caressing my prostate—I’m pretty sure that’s what felt like heaven everytime it was touched, at least—with every thrust of his fingers and his mouth was the thing of beauty… don’t even get me started on the things he was doing with his tongue.

I felt a familiar toe-curling sensation building in the pit of my stomach coiling tighter.

“Shit, I’m gonna cum,” I groaned, tugging at his hair. He didn’t let up, so I just let go, cumming hard with a quiet moan, back arching slightly. He kept going for a minute until I was about to start complaining before he pulled back looking debauched with his hair messy from my grip and his mouth red and slick with spit and cum. He eyed my face for a second, looking entirely too pleased before his eyes went straight to where his fingers were still pushing in before he finally pulled out.

I was about to open my mouth and kindly offer to reciprocate the blow job though I doubted it’d be very good, when he flipped me onto my stomach with no warning. I made sure he knew I didn’t appreciate that and he murmured something that might have been an apology, but he was already lifting my hips up and I could feel the slick, blunt tip of something that was definitely not his finger.

“Condom?” I slurred, still loose and relaxed from my orgasm. He growled at that.

“We don’t need condoms,” he said.

“Right, whatever… you better be clean,” I sighed back, grunting in surprise as I felt pressure on my rim.

“I am…” he groaned, as he slowly pushed the head past and I sucked in a sharp breath as pain lanced up my spine. “Shh… I won’t move until you’re ready…”

“Shit,” I growled, hating that I couldn’t bring myself to ask him to pull out. It was the first—and only time, a voice that was progressively getting quieter murmured in my head—that I would do this sort of thing so there wasn’t much reason to tell him to stop unless I felt it was hurting worse than normal.

He made a questioning noise in the back of his throat, his forehead resting against the back of my neck where he was planting kisses.

“Yeah,” I replied to the unspoken question and he moved in more. We continued this pattern until he was fully seated inside of me and I’d never felt so _full_ before. Something inside of me lurched and felt as if pieces were aligning slowly but surely as Yuvile began thrusting in and out at a gentle pace.

He shifted his hips minutely and nailed my prostate, making me jerk and push back into the sensation.

“Fuck, there,” I groaned, grabbing at him, trying to pull him back into me harder, “Faster.”

He growled and I felt teeth on the back of my neck and went limp as he picked up his pace.

“Wanted you so bad, Derek,” he growled quietly, “Wanted to fuck you in that store… Want to mate you… make you mine forever.”

I wasn’t exactly new to the game of dirty talk but something about the gravelly panting quality to his tone made it so much sexier.

“Fuck, Yuvile,” I moaned out before I could keep it in and he growled loudly and picked up the pace. “Fuck, fuck. Yes, why did I not do this sooner? Oh god…”

“You’re _mine,_ Derek.” Yuvile snapped, seemingly offended that I was thinking about how I had missed a lot of opportunities in the past.

“Prove it,” Derek challenged without really thinking about until the words were out of his mouth.  “Shit…”

Yuvile growled and his teeth sunk into the meat of my shoulder and I gave a surprised cry as another orgasm slammed through me though I’m not sure how or when I’d gotten hard enough to do so. Something tugged at the edge of my rim. It went out, just a slightly noticeable difference in size, came back needing a little extra umph to get it back in and continuing to grow.

“W—what?” I asked, but I was too high on my orgasm to really formulate my question, let alone understand any answer Yuvile might give me. “Fuck!”

I cried out as he used his thumbs to spread my ass open and shove what seemed to be a baseball sized knot at the base of his dick inside me, and if I’d thought the initial penetration had hurt, I was so wrong, because _that_ was horrible. And the word ‘knot’ sparked realization in my brain.

“Are you…. Knotting me?” I whimpered out—though I would never admit how pathetic I sounded. Yuvile rumbled in response. I took that as a yes. “Fuckin’ great…”

Yuvile rotated his hips a couple of times before he jerked to a stop as if he’d been shot and I felt something warm fill me. And that also should not have been quite so satisfying, but something in me settled down immediately and I went slack under him, taking all that he had to give, despite my mind screaming at me to say something about what Yuvile was doing.

Said man released my neck, licking at what was sure to be some beautiful—note the sarcasm—bite marks.

“After,” he grunted, kissing my neck and seeming fascinated with his mark, “You will bite me as well.”

“And now I know how women with possessive boyfriends feel.” I mumbled after I managed to find my voice again. “How long will this last…?”

“About half an hour,” he murmured, nuzzling me as he maneuvered us so that we were spooning. “You can nap…”

I nodded. That sounded like a good idea. I would deal with being pissed afterwards. For now, I was just going to sleep.


	7. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Umm... So, this is a super late chapter and I'm sorry... D: It's also a pretty lousy chapter... this fic has definitely gotten away from me... Mostly because I shoved it into a particular universe that is a lot more complicated than this universe originally was... So... yeah... you may see elements of my new ideas in this version... but for the most part, I'll try to keep it simple... It shouldn't last much longer...
> 
> Also, I didn't have enough of the plot prepared for this and like... the whole thing I've got going on is... probably gonna be so illogical and stupid and I'm so sorry for that in advance. But meh... I tried. So, enjoy. The next chapter is in Yuvile's POV which is why I stopped this one in the middle of everything.
> 
> And for everyone who commented that I've failed at replying to (I'm obviously really horrible at a lot of things...) THANK YOU SO MUCH... I appreciate all of you for it... I never thought this story would be well liked... and it is and that just makes me happy. SO thank you. Hugs and kisses to any and everyone who wants them. <3

_Derek_

I blinked blurrily awake, a little disoriented, and more than a bit confused by the lax, tired feeling of my body… I blinked a couple of more times, feeling uncomfortably hot underneath the _arm_ that was draped across my naked side. I twitched as memories and sensations flickered through me and that was when I realized that my ass was sore and there was something… sticky there… or at least something that was still mostly sticky. I pulled a face, flushing both a bit in embarrassment and also a little bit in irritation.

“You…” I growled as I rolled out of his arms and to my feet, stumbling ever so slightly at the limp-noodle feeling in my legs, trying to ignore how my dick was just hanging out like it was. He blinked bleary eyes up at me before he became significantly more alert.

“Derek,” he rumbled, sounding pleased.

“Oh no, don’t even think about it.” I snarled, surprised how… animalistic it sounded.

He blinked a bit in surprise, and then a scent hit my nose… he was _happy_ , the bastard… I paused a bit, frowning. A _scent_ hit my nose? What was I some kind of… another growl ripped through my throat and the content in his eyes faltered briefly.

“You _bit_ me.” I snarled, furiously. “And _knotted_ me. What the hell?”

“You’re _mine_ , Derek. You told me to prove it!” Yuvile said, as if it was MY fault. “ _You_ challenged an ALPHA.”

“I’ll admit that it wasn’t all your fault, but I didn’t agree to be turned into a damn _dog_.” I snapped, feeling furious.

It was his turn to growl, eyes flashing vividly, angry.

“You are not a _dog_ , and neither are any of my… _our_ people.” Yuvile snapped, dominance in his voice that made something inside me twitch and try and make me bow to ‘my alpha.’

It was the same thing that had let me be knotted and I was getting tired of whatever _it_ was trying to make decisions for me. I growled.

“No, I’m your _mate_ right? Didn’t I tell you I’m not interested in that shit?” I snapped. “They’re not _our_ people either, they’re _yours_. I’m not Neorian.”

Yuvile was absolutely livid as he got to his feet to tower over me.

“You are my mate, and you _are_ Neorian.” He snapped, and this time, even _I_ couldn’t resist the instinct to submit under this pressure, letting that irritating niggling thing inside me move my body. I exposed my throat to him, though I imagine the glare I had trained on him was ruining the image.

Yuvile immediately nuzzled the exposed flesh, letting his fangs tease over the skin where he’d bitten me last night… it sent tingles of pleasure through my body... no pain at all, and I found that somehow to be the most suspicious thing.

“What did you _do_ to me?” I asked, my voice uncharacteristically terrified. “What _exactly_ did biting me do? Why do you keep saying _I’m_ Neorian?”

Now that the clouds of lust wasn’t around to muddle my mind—though the scent wafting off Yuvile was just as tempting and arousing as before—I could take the time to think about all the questions that had bothered me before.

“What’s an omega? A beta? Hell, what’s an _alpha?_ ” I continued when he didn’t answer me immediately. “Yuvile! Answer me!”

He narrowed his eyes on me.

“I won’t answer to such a tone, Derek. You may be my precious mate, but I’m still the king and the alpha.”

“I don’t give a fuck that you’re the alpha or the king, if you’re so damn adamant that I’m your _mate—_ ” I spate the word like a curse in fury. “Then maybe you should _treat_ me like your _equal_.”

I wasn’t some bitch or whatever he seemed to think. And while I was aware there seemed to be some superiority complex that this guy had—he kept yammering about being an alpha after all—I was under the impression that anyone with half a brain realized that a soulmate was an _equal_ … even someone like me who didn’t believe in that.

The way his eyes flared before he reluctantly bared his throat to me seemed to be more surprise than anger this time. The thing in the back of my mind was still cowering, but this was _my_ fight. I was in the right and his submission _proved_ it.

With more surety than I actually felt, I leaned into his space and placed my lips on his neck. I didn’t bite him—there was too much information I needed before I was going to risk another jump like that—and I didn’t kiss him—he hadn’t earned that forgiveness—but I did acknowledge him. This was all something I did following some of the almost hesitant instincts and thoughts floating through my brain that had definitely not been there before I’d met Yuvile.

“Now…” I said, taking a step back, glaring at him, still. “If you’re ready to have an _adult_ conversation... put some damn pants on and sit.”

He narrowed his eyes, which were basically stuck glowing at this point, more luminescent than their normal color, but stalked over to where his discarded pants were and pulled them on. I pulled on my boxers, wincing only a little when something warm and wet _leaked_ out of me when I lifted a leg to put them on… well _that_ was going to be awkward.

I looked up to see his eyes on me intently, the pupils dilated and I imagined that he could probably _smell_ it. And that was just gross. The fact that he was excited didn’t make my dick twitch in my boxers at all.

I ignored his stare, and gestured with my arms crossed to the bed.

“Let’s start with the basics shall we?” I asked when he sat down. “What’s do you mean when you say alpha, beta, and omega?”

I didn’t move to sit beside him. I kept standing… He had enough height on me that if I sat next to him, it’d be too easy to dominate me, and I could already feel that pathetically shy and weak-willed new part of me whine in distress.

“An alpha is a leader. We’re dominant and aggressive… often times excessively…” he said after thinking for a minute. “Alphas, while not the least common, are becoming more uncommon with each generation… The women are able to have children, but it’s… uncommon. A beta is a… well, they are much like humans, in that they can be aggressive or submissive or switch and they do not have knots like Alphas… the women, while fertile, often have difficulty with the birth… They make up the majority of Neorians…”

“And omegas?” I asked, raising an eyebrow when he trailed into silence.

“They are… the opposite of an alpha. They are… generally speaking, smaller and more submissive… They have a period of time every two months or so when they experience a _heat_ , and the men, though omega men are rare, can bear children…”

“Bear… children? A… a man?” I asked, because, what?

“Yes, they can only get pregnant during their heat, but…” he shrugged.

“What did you do to me when you bit me?”

“It… wasn’t the bite,” he said carefully, “It started as soon as you smelled my scent, I told you that before didn’t I?”

I shrugged before gesturing for him to continue.

“When we bonded… or well, it’s only a half bond until you return the bite… but when we bonded, your body began changing fully. By your first heat, your magic should have developed to where I can begin teaching you how to harness it… and your senses should be more sensitive.”

“Wait, by my first heat? What do you mean by that?” Because earlier, I’m pretty sure he’d said that only _omegas_ had heats… and that _omega men_ could get _pregnant._

“You are an omega… though… an unconventional one…” he frowned a bit. “I… had never expected to ever… _submit_ to another alpha… much less to an omega… my mate or not…”

“Are you telling me that _I can get pregnant_?” I emphasized, trying my hardest not to reveal how much I absolutely abhorred that thought. Apparently I did a horrible job because he gave me a sad look.

“Do you not want children?” he asked.

“Of course I want children… when I’m financially stable and have a wife and a mortgage… and in no way have I ever planned on _birthing the child!_ ” I replied, volume rising at the very terror of that thought.

He looked kind of sad at this news and something tugged at my insides. I pushed the feeling away, deep to the darkest parts of my mind. I may have had sex with him, but that was it… and well, I guess I was half bonded to him… so I was… probably stuck with him… but that didn’t mean I wanted to _feel_ anything for him.

I frowned back at him, mirroring his melancholy, but for a different reason.

 


	8. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahaha, I bet you all thought I'd died. When was the last time I uploaded a chapter? A thousand years ago, it seems, as I can't even remember. I apologize for that. School kicked my ass rather thoroughly. Thankfully, I've successfully graduated and now am in the pleasant phase of "Too Lazy to Job Search".   
> Most of this chapter ended up being recap from Yuvile's PoV, but I'll do my best to give new content in the next chapter. I'll do my best to get them out properly from now on. I do plan for this to be done in a few chapters, but I'm afraid that it won't resolve anything as this was just supposed to be a short story in a series of three or four short stories. Y.Y Well, I'll see what happens.

_Yuvile_

I nuzzled at the soft hairs on the back of Derek’s neck, rumbling in content as I slowly slipped from him, though I was sad to do so… it seemed to be the only thing Derek and I had had in common… and even then, it hadn’t been until well into it that he’d accepted the fact that he enjoyed the bottom position.

Well, it could only get better from here… I thought, as I let my eyelids droop and curled more firmly around my mate and drifted off.

A growl brought me first to the surface followed by the movement of the body I had still been clinging to. This didn’t dissuade me and I looked up slightly sleep-drunk at  Derek, who while looking livid, had the distinct scent of _omega_ about him that made my alpha side rumble in joy and I blinked a couple more times to clear the sleep haze.

“Derek,” I rumbled, feeling content enough to ignore the fact that a growl had pulled me from sleep. He was an _omega._ He was _my_ omega.

“Oh, no, don’t even think about it,” he snarled sounding more animal than man in that moment and I felt another surge of pleasure followed by a gentler wave of pride at my strong omega. But that was a little weird, wasn’t it? Derek was an omega, my omega, but he was so strong willed. Then I noticed that underneath the new scent of _omega_ and _mate_ wafting off of him, underneath the heavy smell of sex, that he was kind of furious and I gave him a surprised look.

His eyes flashed in surprise as he stared at me, taking in a deep breath as if he was about to rant at me, and I realized that he was probably finally able to smell things with the same sort of intensity that I did. Suddenly, his eyes were furious, and another growl, fiercer this time, tore from his mouth. I felt, worried, a little bit. Why was he so mad?

“You _bit_ me.” He accused, “And _knotted_ me. What the hell?”

I blinked even more confused, and then frowned, “You’re _mine_ , Derek. You told me to prove it!” I shook my head as if it were common sense. “ _You_ challenged an ALPHA.”

“I’ll admit that it wasn’t all your fault, but I didn’t agree to be turned into a damn _dog_.” He snapped and part of me hurt at that. Is that all he thought of me? Of my… _our_ people? A growl rose up from me, fury at the injury, fury at the thought that _my omega_ thought he could speak to me like this.

“You are not a _dog_ , and neither are any of my… _our_ people!” I snapped, pushing my alpha power behind my statement in my fury, not really worrying about the repercussions such an act might have in the face of my stubborn omega.

He seemed to freeze up for a split second, but he was back to normal so fast, that I almost thought I’d imagined it. A normal omega would never continue an argument after an alpha used their alpha power like that. I suppose, I should’ve known I wasn’t dealing with a normal omega.

“No, I’m your _mate_ , right? Didn’t I tell you I’m not interested in that shit?” he snapped at me, and I was just too shocked to react immediately. “They’re not _our_ people either, they’re _yours_. I’m not Neorian!”

Fury like no other flooded through my veins and I felt energy powered by anger spread over my skin as I towered over my precious, stubborn _mate_.

“You are my mate, and you _are_ Neorian.” I couldn’t keep the pure livid anger out of my voice or continence. This statement held all the power I had as an alpha and as a king, even another alpha would have never been able to resist such power. He looked irritated and confused and a little like he was glad to submit as he exposed his throat to me, but then he fixed a glare on his face. It relaxed every muscle in my body though, seeing the bite marks that bound me to him.

I nuzzled against the skin, before skimming my fangs over it, wanting him to understand the meaning behind the bit, hoping that he would calm down with the pleasurable sensations it surely caused.

“What did you _do_ to me?” he asked, and my ears twitched at the sound of fear lurking in his tone. “What _exactly_ did biting me do? Why do you keep saying _I’m_ Neorian?”

Without the haze of lust that had been building up in both of us in the same delirious amount as before, it seemed my mate was quite the inquisitive one. He didn’t give me a chance to continue though as he asked more questions.

“What’s an omega? A beta? Hell, what’s an _alpha_?” This was such a hard thing to answer, since it was so second nature to me. And to answer to an omega who didn’t respect the authority of an alpha….

“Yuvile! Answer me!” he demanded, anger in his tone again, his eyes narrowed and fixed on me.

 “I won’t answer to such a tone, Derek. You may be my precious mate, but I’m still the king and the alpha.”

“I don’t give a fuck that you’re the alpha or the king, if you’re so damn adamant that I’m your _mate_ then maybe you should _treat_ me like your _equal_.” The way he said ‘mate’ made it sound like the worst curse, but I had little time to focus on that, the fury and the power behind his words was so much like an alpha that even I felt the need to placate him, and before I realized it, instinct drove me to show him my throat, and I felt some confusion and no small amount of surprise at it. As an alpha I’d never felt the need to submit to anyone.

Looking for all the world like he wasn’t bothered at all, Derek leaned in and pressed his lips to my neck. Part of me, the alpha part that was whining at the loss of dominance, wanted to recoil from the action, angry that I was showing such submission. Another part of me, the part of me that recognized that Derek was my mate, and that begrudgingly accepted that he was right, however, deemed it was only necessary, and in fact wanted the bite that would finish our mate bond.

But he didn’t bite, he didn’t kiss, he merely pressed his lips and then leaned back and proceeded to glare at me. I didn’t want to be disappointed, but somehow I was anyway.

“Now…” he said, “If you’re ready to have an _adult_ conversation… put some damn pants on and sit.”

I narrowed my eyes a bit at the direct blow towards our age difference. Had he realized that he was nearly a decade in human years older than me? When he made no mention of it, after that, I relaxed a bit, but still, there was a hefty bit of irritation in me at the moment. My _omega_ was still bossing me around. With a little more aggression than necessary, I picked up my pants and pulled them on. The scent of our recent joining burst through the room, and my eyes went straight to Derek who had an look of almost embarrassment on his face as he lifted his leg, my cum was leaking down his legs and I could feel a part of me start aching to respond. It was tempting to have a very different sort of adult conversation over the bland explanations that Derek was insisting on.

His eyes met mine and I could see them dilate from here, I imagine mine were equally dilated, and the scent of his shared arousal made me want to shiver, but I made no move. I was still angry with him, and apparently, he was very set on having this talk, as he continued to pull his boxers and pants on without mentioning anything.

“Let’s start with the basics shall we?” he asked when I sat down. I was hoping he’d sit near me. My inner alpha wanted to be close to him desperately, but after the fury he’d showed earlier, I thought perhaps waiting a bit might be the better option. “What do you mean when you say alpha, beta, and omega?”

I gave him the short and sweet version of what he was asking, but he seemed to get hung up on the fact that omega males could have children. For me, this was normal, if a more uncommon experience because of the few omega men that made up the Neorian population. I was becoming more and more concerned with the lack of knowledge that was given to the human race.

“What did you do to me when you bit me?” he asked next, startling me out of my moment of concerned contemplation.

“It… wasn’t the bite,” I replied, “It started as soon as you smelled my scent, I told you before didn’t I?”

“When we bonded…. Or well, it’s only a half bond until you return the bite… but when we bonded, your body began changing fully. By your first heat, your magic should have developed to where I can begin teaching you how to harness it… and your senses should be more sensitive.”

“Wait, by my first heat? What do you mean by that?” I could smell the scent of what might have been fear or just disbelief, it was a close call and tried to calm him a bit, but he was very focused on the idea of being pregnant.

“Do you not want children?” I asked, feeling nerves bubbling in my stomach. I could already picture sharing his heat, watching him grow with our child, raising the future king of Neoria...

“Of course I want children…” he started and I felt my heart tick up with joy, only to feel it drop at his next words, “When I’m financially stable and have a wife and a mortgage… and in no way have I ever planned on _birthing the child!_ ” his voice got louder with every word at the end, and the scent of fear was clear this time.

I frowned at him, trying to think of a way to get through this new found road block. He returned the frown. There was no going back after even only making half a bond, so if Derek was unwilling to give me an heir… unwilling to love me… to let me love him, then it was going to be a long remainder of our lives. A darker part of me, a part that I was shocked existed, just thought it’d be alright to wait until his heat, he’d surely want children then in the stupor he’d be in… but even though he’s my omega, the thought of forcing myself on him in that state, without prior consent… No, that was too much, too wrong.

If Derek didn’t want to be with me during his heats, then so be it. I wouldn’t force it on him.

“Is there… any way to get rid of the bond? Since it’s not a full one?” Derek asked and the words stung so much more than I would’ve expected, even though I was fully aware that he would ask that question after how this had played out.

“No,” I replied, and if my voice sounded a bit choked off, well, Derek didn’t call me on it aside from throwing me a surprised look.

“What does it mean that it’s only half a bond?” he asked next.

“It’s… I don’t know. It’s extremely uncommon to have a half bond. It happens in rare cases of violence, but generally, to preserve the innocent or unwilling party, the perpetrator is… taken care of.”

“Taken care of? That’s brutal.” Derek replied, but he didn’t seem to be as phased by it as I thought he might be.

“Derek,” I said, voice serious, solemn. “Are you unwilling to be with me?”

This really got his attention from whatever it was that he found so interesting on the wall.

“What? I don’t know you well enough to say I want to be with you, but it’s nothing to have you killed over.” Derek rubbed a hand over his face, and I realized how tired he looked for just a moment, showing his age in the consideration in his eyes. “I suppose we’ll just have to see how it goes.”

A wave of relief rushed through me.

“Then you’ll complete the bond with me?”

“I didn’t say that. As long as it’s possible to stay without going that far, I’m fine with it. No need to dig in any deeper.”

“Now, tell me about a heat. What’s it like exactly?” Derek asked, narrowing his eyes a bit in what appeared to be irritation before he settled down an arm’s length away from me.

“Ah, they are… a period of time in which your body’s libido is on overdrive… you’ll feel the need to...” I trailed off when I saw the look he was giving me. “The omega usually feels the need to be mated by an alpha or… impregnated by their mate.”

“Okay, that’s enough, please stop now. Basically, a heat is where I’m really horny and submissive, I get it.” I sighed. “Is there any way to prevent them?”

“No. The Neorian population is already so low, introducing any heat blocker could drastically increase the chances of damaging the fertility of an omega and the omega’s offspring.” I replied, “Not to mention, stopping the biological function could cause extreme flux in the omega’s magic and be dangerous to themselves or others… Magic is hard enough to handle safely without adding undeterminable elements into the mix.”

“So what if an omega, while in their right mind, doesn’t want to get knocked up by an alpha or whatever?”

“Then they go to a heat facility, or more normally, they have a heat room in which they can spend their heat safely without worry of outside interference and in the comfort of their home.” I replied, this was beginning to feel like a basic gender-biology lesson. I was ready for the conversation to move on. “If you wish, Derek, I can tell you more of Neorians as a people, and it will perhaps answer some of your questions.”

“Okay.” He agreed easily, and so I started talking about the way of life on Neoria, about the moons and the oracles. I told him about the political situation, the vast deserts that covered much of the small planet. I told him the lore of creation for our people and by the time I’d gotten to talking about some of the interesting foods to be found in Neorian cities, Derek had fallen asleep, sprawled out on the bed, with his legs over the edge. I coaxed a sleeping Derek into a more comfortable position and then set about preparing the bathroom, for later, as I was sure he would want to use it then. I merely showered quickly, lamenting the fact that Derek’s scent was being washed away.

Finished with this, I wrote a note for Derek when he woke up about the bathroom, where I would be, and how to call me if he needed me. With that done, I left the room, rather begrudgingly, and went to my study to start the mountain of paperwork that still remained to be filed after my inauguration and the meetings with the governments of Earth.

It was going to be a long trip back to Neoria.


	9. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, I need to stop doing this to ya'll, but here I am. At least I wrote something. It wasn't everything I wanted and a bag of beans, but it rarely ever is. I appreciate those of you who are commenting and leaving kudos, ya'll always remind me that this is here and that I created something that people can read and enjoy and that helps a lot when I'm not feeling too great. 
> 
> SO thanks so much and lots of hugs and kisses to everyone!! Hopefully this chapter, filler as it may be (though I'll admit, this does have a small purpose, good luck spotting it), holds you over until I figure out what happens next. I have an idea, and I'm gonna do my best to write it in a reasonable amount of time this time (I literally wrote this entire chapter in like two or three hours, so do forgive the occasional inconsistency and just give me a shout so I can fix it). Anywaaay, enjoy the reading. There isn't as much dialogue this time and it may seem that my writing style has changed a bit again. D:

_Chapter Eight_

_Derek_

There was a chirping noise that woke me, what felt like hours later. It was a familiar tone… my bracer, I realized. Relief washed through me as the sound of my alarm pulled me into a sort of semi-conscious state. It’d all been a dream, my sleep laden mind thought, the image of Yuvile fresh in my mind, his hands, eyes, _scent_. All the things he’d told me… all the things that had happened in too short a time. I almost wanted to laugh, but there was a sort of ache in my chest as I thought about it all being a dream. The ache spread, leaving my chest and causing me to feel every little ache and pain throughout my body.

There was a dull throbbing sort of barely-there pain at the base of my skull, where I’d been hit in my too-real dream. Probably I hit something while sleep walking. The side of my neck throbbed in a tingly pleasant way where Yuvile had bit me, my fingers twitched with the need to touch the marks, though I was sure I wouldn’t find any. I’d probably merely slept with it at a weird angle. My hips were also more sore than I remember them being in a while, and I could feel heat flush as I thought about the heated part of my dream. The fevered lust, the scent of arousal and something else, in the air was so tangible that I could almost still smell a hint of it.

There was nothing my mind could scrounge up to explain that, but the chirping of my phone’s alarm was getting irritating and I really needed it to just shut up so I could get a couple more hours. I rolled over and the first thought that hit my mind was that this bed was bigger and softer than the one in my apartment… did I go out last night? Come to think of it, if all of that was a dream, I don’t even remember getting home…

The next thing that registered in my mind, a little belatedly and with much shock, was the uncomfortable feeling of clothes sticking to skin, the fabric stiff from a dried substance.  My eyes popped open and the scene around me finalized in my mind, conforming to the memories I’d just imagined were nothing but a dream. The ache in my chest quelled but the pain in the rest of my body didn’t, and there was a heaviness that replaced the feeling of loss.

I’d been so preoccupied with all the new information before I’d fallen asleep—lulled there by the smooth voice of my apparent mate—that I’d failed to ask anything about my home, my friends, and family—not that my relationship with my older brother or any of my other family was all that good, in fact, it was terrible, so I could see why asking after that particular aspect of my life was… easily forgotten, it was easier to pretend I had none than to deal with them.

I bolted upright, the world spinning around me at the sudden position change and I clutched my head to try and alleviate some of the dizziness.  As much as I hated it, I could feel the prickling of panic as I looked around to see that I was alone. Some small quiet new part of me feared I’d been abandoned, too stubborn and not docile enough to deal with, even if I was Yuvile’s mate. Thankfully, that part of me was easily squished under my lack of concern. I didn’t care if he wanted me as a mate—ignoring the twinge I got every time I thought that was easy enough—what I wanted was to go back home and get that engineering job I’d finally found and been hired for, find a good wife, and settle down...

How long had I been here? How long had I been asleep in this room? According to my bracer, it’d been over 24 hours since I’d gotten off work and in that time, I’d gotten kidnapped and had a sexual encounter with the king of an alien race, formed a half mate bond with the aforementioned king, and learned more about Neorian culture than I’d ever cared to learn before... In less than 24 hours, my entire life plan had been tossed on its head, starting with the fact that Yuvile somehow expected me to become his mate and have his kids.

That thought itself was laughable, but I couldn’t even bring a smirk of amusement to my face. I ran a tired hand over my face and then shut off my bracer, which was on the sleek metallic nightstand next to the relatively low-lying bed. I clipped it back onto my wrist and when it authorized me as its user, I began typing furiously, trying to connect to any signal available to figure out not only where I was, but also to communicate with anyone from Earth.

It didn’t work.

Even with my advanced engineering and coding skills, the most I could discern was the speed we were moving… and that was too fast for a basic bracer like this one to catch a signal. I sighed and slumped forward. Of course, being able to reprogram my bracer to pick up on normally unusable signals wouldn’t help if the device itself wasn’t sophisticated enough to solidify those connections.

After sitting in a silence that even I could tell was depressing I pushed myself to the edge of the bed and swung my feet over, looking around for any sign of where Mr. Macho-Alpha King had disappeared to. Some part of me wondered how I knew he wasn’t in the room with me, even from the moment I realized I wasn’t dreaming, the other part thought perhaps it was the surprising lack of a fresh scent, no unnecessary groping or grumbling, and the heavy feeling in my chest that told me something wasn’t quite right at the moment.

I rubbed my face over my hand as I spotted a stack of clothes with a piece of paper on top. The hand carded through my hair and I stood, a little unsteady still and I was beginning to think it had more to do with being on a spaceship travelling at speeds exceeding that of light-speed for the first time. Neorian technology was something of a mystery to me, but I was all the more willing to take a peek at it while I was here anyway. It was the least Yuvile could let me do, since I seemed to be stuck with him for quite some time now.

I stumbled over to the note and was surprised by the neat letters and the general formality of the letter itself. He was working on some documents—much to his distaste, apparently—and while he regretted having to leave me alone for any amount of time, he thought it best to give me some space to settle down, have a shower, etc. I snorted. If he thought a little bit of space was going to get me to settle down, I’m afraid he was pretty wrong. I probably won’t be as likely to try and rip out his throat with words after a long hot shower, but I wasn’t going to suddenly become a docile ‘omega.’

I shuddered a bit. I didn’t want to think about that at the moment.

I shifted the clothes around and gave them a frown of distaste—they were obviously not _my_ clothes—but sighed, because that was better than these cum-stained jeans and potentially ripped shirt. I picked them up and went into the bathroom, determined to work the shower without the help of his note, but upon entering I realized that I was far outclassed in tech. My cheap shower at my apartment might’ve had fabulous water pressure but it was not this complicated, and also not this large.

What was this sort of thing even doing on a spaceship? Wasn’t this a waste of space or resources or something? I begrudgingly grabbed the note and followed the carefully written instructions on operating the shower/tub thing.

The cheap shower in my apartment was also _not_ this amazing. I don’t know what sort of bath salts or whatever it was they put in here, but I could feel the knots in my shoulders and back unwind, my muscles feeling loose and relaxed in a way they hadn’t in years. The temperature of the water seemed to change periodically, as it never got too hot or too cold, but seemed to gradually become whatever temperature I wanted it to be at any point. I imagine it had some sort of sensor, and if it wasn’t for the fact that I honestly didn’t care about it at this point, I might’ve been a bit weirded out by the weird AI level technology that seemed to be going on in this tub.

When I finally finished up and dried off with the towel located next to the bath, I started shifting through the stack of clothing in front left for me. Most of them were definitely of the Neorian style—if Yuvile’s clothes from before were a style—and they looked like they might be a bit bigger than I normally liked, but I sighed and started pulling them on. They at least included pants, even if the top barely reached my second rib bone and had no sleeves. It wasn’t my first choice of attire, but I’d take it.

I looked through the note for any information on getting food, but saw nothing but how to contact him if I needed him and I frowned at that. If he was working, I wouldn’t bother him, aside from how rude and irritating that sort of thing tended to be, I wasn’t in any hurry to have him back. I figured I’d just change the sheets and sleep some more or play some games on my bracer to pass the time. By the time I got finished changing the sheets though, my stomach was roiling with hunger.

“Damn-it…” I cursed aloud and found the device on the wall that he’d mentioned in his note. He called it a ‘Comm-Screen’. I pressed the start button and typed in the serious of symbols that seemed to be sort of like numbers until it started ringing as it waited to be connected. Suddenly, Yuvile’s face appeared on the screen and he looked surprised and then pleased.

“ _Derek_ ,” his voice rumbled clearly over the connection, the image was also crystal clear, like I was looking at him through a blue tinted window, not a wireless link of some sort. There was no interference at all and I was itching to just take it apart and understand how it worked.

“Yuvile, you left out the most important thing in your note.” I informed him, frowning sternly. His face took on an almost panicked look for a moment before he settled it into a mask. It was then I realized how _young_ he looked.

“ _And what was that?_ ” he asked, his voice containing an almost strained note of humor.

“You didn’t tell me where to get food.” I replied as I started scrutinizing him, from the way he held his stylus to the mess on his desk and the youthfulness of his expression and a whole different sort of irritation filled me. “Also, I don’t think I asked you quite how _old_ you are?”

His entire body twitched at the last question as if it stung him and then he proceeded to ignore it.

“ _I didn’t leave it out. No Alpha in their right mind would allow anyone to serve their omega food so soon after bonding, even half-bonded as we are. I will finish this document and bring something to eat._ ” He replied, a small smile on his lips as if he was excited by the prospect.

I rolled my eyes but gave him a firm look.

“How old are you?”

“ _What matter is it? I’m old enough to be your lover with no issue even among human law. Is that not enough?”_ he grumbled.

“Yuvile… It matters because I asked and if I’m going to be tied to you for the rest of my life, you’re going to have to start answering my questions. Now… how old are you?”

“ _In human years?”_ he grumbled like a petulant child. I nodded. “ _About 22, I suppose.”_

“That would explain so, so much.” I sighed, with the weight of being eight years older than him. “Just hurry up or my stomach might try to eat itself.”

The face Yuvile made as I shut off the video and audio feed was glorious and I let myself revel in it before my mind started wandering.

Was he not irritated or resentful that he’d landed not only a man, but one who was eight years older than him and not even from the same planet as he was? I plopped backwards on the bed—happy at least for the soft fabric and easy mobility offered by the clothes—and let my thoughts drift off anywhere to prevent me from thinking about the rumbling in my stomach as I waited for Yuvile to arrive.


	10. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I'll be honest, this chapter was supposed to be MUCH longer, but then I started trying to think up words for Neorian cuisine and my brain was NOT ready for that (I swear, there must be a level of hell dedicated to naming alien/foreign things in a consistent fashion).... Needless to say, I gave up (though I wrote out a shitty little blurb for it, I'll just gloss over it in the next chapter). 
> 
> Anyway, have fun with this chapter. It was literally just a chapter dedicated to describing the ship a little bit and giving Derek and Yuvile some non-sexual bonding time (more or less). Let me know what ya'll think! And sorry for my horrible inconsistency (even though I graduated.... Y.Y). 
> 
> Next chapter will be all sorts of relationship talk and may I'll finally get to something plot related... admittedly, I plotted out the last couple of chapters and it's really just porn, so sorry in advance for that (though it may be a hot second before I get to it).

_Yuvile_

“That would explain so, so much.” Derek sighed over the Comm-Screen, he sounded a little tired when he uttered these words and I felt some heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Was my age really that repulsive for him? Was eight years that much time? Humans must see age very differently from us. While we had a distinct age of maturity—around 50 cycles or somewhere around 17 to 18 human years—but after that, age became mostly irrelevant to society.

Age was something that other cultures valued and it provided a reason for celebration during the long dark months of the winter cycle. It also helped marked the passage of time. But otherwise, no real thought was given to it. Natural born, healthy Neorians could live nearly two of a human’s lifespan, apart from Oracles, and even humans who evolved into Neorians through mating had their life extended, a phenomenon that was attributed to the Linking of Souls from the full bond.

Of course, it seemed that not everyone experienced this level of a bond, and my chest acted slightly when I thought that I may never experience the full beauty of it with my stubborn omega.

“Just hurry up or my stomach might try to eat itself.”

The words broke through my moment of thought and I felt my stomach drop as I looked at my omega in fear, but before I could ask what he meant by his words—I’d never heard of a human’s stomach trying to eat itself!—he closed out the screen and I had to fly through the rest of my document so I could rush through the corridor of the ship that linked the royal suite to the office space I’d been provided with.

I dodged a few humans who were on board, they looked like the government types that occasionally came to Neoria as diplomatic ambassadors, and one other Neorian who bowed but then had to quickly jerk out of my way as I hurried.

I could feel a twinge of guilt as I all but burst into the room, breathing a little ragged from my near sprint, eyes wide with worry.

“Derek,” I gasped out, but he didn’t look too troubled after the shock of my entry faded away. In fact, he broke out into a smile and then started laughing like he couldn’t think of anything funnier than the sight of me. It kind of hurt a bit, but also, I’d only seen serious expressions on his face up to this point and the image of him laughing so brightly and so hard, with tears prickling the corners of his closed eyes, was something I never wanted to forget. It was beautiful.

“Oh man, I didn’t think you’d seriously come running, but man, there you are.” His eyes were twinkling with mirth; little laugh lines around his eyes that I hadn’t noticed became more prominent.

“What did you expect me to do when you cut off the chat after such a comment?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest and sulking a bit, though I was fine with the small injury to my pride if it kept him smiling like that.

“I mean, it’s not wrong, but it’s also not serious.” Derek said with a shrug. “Now that you’re here though, let’s get some food and then we need  to have a talk.”

The mirth left a little bit, drawing into some sort of almost fake-pleasant voice, but I could hear something like exhaustion behind those last words.

“Very well…” I replied, frowning a bit, but not wanting to remove that pleased flush from his cheeks just yet, I refrained from mentioning anything else. “We will be taking our meal in a private area for now.”

“Why?” he asked, his voice innocently curious. “I imagine there are lots of others on this ship, is it just a king thing or…?”

“It’s because we are… newly mated, or as close to newly mated as we can be before you return the bite.” I replied, because I had to be optimistic that he would return the bite, “As an alpha, this stage can be rather hard, so I’ve heard, to adjust to… the protective instincts that come with having an omega mate. I don’t know if there would be much complication for you, as… brazen as you are…”

I’ll admit my phrasing of the last bit was not that good. Brazen seemed inappropriate, but I didn’t think that Derek would like to be told he was supposed to be submissive… well, in any case, it felt a little bit like walking in a mine field, as I had to be desperately careful not to insult my mate who seemed to already be walking a fine-line of distrust and dislike of me.

“Complication?” he asked, but then sighed and shook his head as if he’d had enough already when I hadn’t even started to explain it yet. “Well, it doesn’t matter as long as I get some food… though I do wonder, does this place have a window?” he asked the last with something akin to excitement trying to make itself know, but as though he were trying to oppress the emotion. “I mean, this is my first time in space, and I am kind of curious to see what it looks like.”

“It does indeed have a window of sorts.” I replied, and smiled a little at the eagerness in his eyes. “In fact, most of the area provides quite the view. I’ll explain it more when we arrive.”

I motioned for him to follow me and he obliged without much hesitation, and I was relieved for that, anyway. He didn’t say much as I led him down the unsurprisingly deserted halls—there was no reason for anyone to be down this hall as it connected only with the hall towards the dining hall we’d be taking our meal in, and there would be no one else aside from the betas in the kitchen.

The hall was honestly much too large for only two people, and I spent most of the walk lamenting the fact that we couldn’t take our meal in my chamber. Admittedly, I’m not sure how comfortable Derek would be about this. Given the curiosity with which he looked at everything—as if he was deconstructing the ship with his eyes alone—he was more than happy to stretch his legs out of the room.

I held open the door for him to step through when we arrived but nearly walked into him as he’d stopped abruptly. The dining hall was quiet except for the gentle sound of music floating around the dome like room; it lacked any of the normal chatter of the aristocracy that usually filled it. The lights, which normally would be changing colors, stayed a dim amber color, off-setting the silver light provided by the hundreds of panels that brought space into the room.

Derek’s eyes dropped down and he looked off the platform that we stood on to the empty space of the dome below us, his jaw slightly agape and awe in his eyes. Unless one looked closely, the room gave the appearance of being on a platform in space, with no walls to hide the beauty or brilliance of stars as our ship sped by at a steady speed—I’d been informed we’d dropped out of warp speed to rest the engines and so that some of the passengers could enjoy the beauty of space in the other dome-dining hall on the opposite side of the ship.

Derek stepped towards the edge of the platform and I jerked to him in response, feeling nervous at seeing my mate so close to the edge of what could be a dangerous fall, especially until his body had finished adjusting. He trailed inquisitive eyes over the scene of space until his eyes found the wall—plain and boring—that held the door we’d come through. He followed the line up to the skeleton of the roof dome, where it converged in a large oval before sprawling out in support beams to about a fourth of the way down the walls, providing for an almost completely unobstructed 360 view of the world outside.

He reached out and brushed his fingers against the image of space and made a surprised sound.

“ _How_?” he demanded, turning his wide excited eyes to me and in that moment he looked so _young_ that I was almost sure I was the older one. His eyes didn’t stay with me long as they went back to examining the panel. He found the edge of that panel and traced a finger along the sides, forming a hexagon, though it took looking extremely close to see the divide between the panels.

“Um…” I started, eloquently of course, “I’m not entirely sure on all the details… but it is an Oria Panel… it’s something like your video technology. The interior panels act as a screen that displays pictures that are streamed to them somehow from a coating of nano-machines on the exterior of the panel…” I fumbled a bit for the right words, this was not my strong skill; technology, while not bad to learn, had never been a priority for a young prince.

Derek’s fingers twitched along the edge of the panel like he wanted nothing more than to pull it off the wall and take it apart. I took another cautious step towards my mate.

“I can get you a book on them if you’d like? There should be an electronic copy in your language in the archive database…”

His eyes snapped back to me, and he looked absolutely _giddy_ at the prospect of reading through what was likely to be technological and engineering jargon but  I vaguely recalled seeing something about an ‘engineering degree’ on his file when I’d read it over and I thought that that might explain it. I felt a surge of pride in my chest because _my_ mate was _smart_.

“That would be great!” he said, his entire body moving with the excitement behind his words. “I mean, the whole thing is—” he was cut off as his stomach growled loudly and his cheeks tinted slightly pink—whether it was from his previous excitement or from the embarrassment at his stomach noises, I’m not quite sure.

“Later,” he said as if trying to convince himself. “For now, I’m gonna need you to feed me.”

His fingers twitched a bit again as he ran his fingers through his dark hair and he turned his eyes briefly back to the panels before he seemed to look at the broader picture. I had seen scenes like this enough that they were no longer that awe-inspiring for me, but this was Derek’s first time in space, so I gave him a moment to take it in before I brushed my fingers against the hand he held at his side in a bid to get his attention. He jumped a bit in response, but refocused his attention on me.

“We should sit,” I replied with a small grin, gesturing towards one of the many empty tables in the room.

“This is not what I had in mind when you mentioned a private dining area… This looks like a large classy restaurant… definitely too big for only two people.” He said, as he followed me to one of the tables near enough to the edge that it provided a beautiful view and far from the door that led into the kitchen where I could hear the slight buzz of activity.

“I agree, but there was little else that could be done… This ship is normally just a luxury ship, but the one normally used was being maintenance and wouldn’t be finished on schedule. The owner kindly offered the service of this ship and its captain and crew.” I replied waiting for Derek to sit—or rather, sprawl would be a better term for it. He shifted in the seat with a small wince when he first sat down until he looked like he’d found a comfortable position. I felt a twinge of worry turn my stomach and my eyebrows pulled down as I gave him a look to express my concern.

“Are you uncomfortable?”

“Eh…” he replied with a shrug. “I’m just a little sore… I mean, that was my _first_ time with a man…”

He seemed oblivious to the effect that these words had on me. They sent a curl of heat and desire through me, accented by a possessiveness I worried I might end up feeling around my mate quite frequently. Now was not the time for this though. Not only were we in the dining hall, but Derek had said something about needing to talk, and as much as I’d rather let our bodies do the talking, I knew that he was right, so I forcibly reined in my libido.

“What would you like to eat?” I asked, voice huskier than I’d intended for it to be.

This was going to be a long meal…


	11. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait. To be honest, I'd written out the draft for this sometime in... October? I think it was October, but work was... exhausting I guess and I just didn't feel like typing it up to post it... Um... I don't really go about edit these things either, so I'm sorry for any and all inconsistencies, misspellings, bad grammar, etc.  
> Annnnyyywwaay.... I feel like they're both a little OOC in this chapter, but they're having adult talks so maybe not. Also, if it's not evident by the end of the chapter, the entire 'conflict' point of this story is absolute shit and really needs to be re-written... but well, it's probably fine for now. Err.... anyway, please enjoy. <3  
> Thanks for all the comments and kudos and thanks for coming back to read it even though I have no schedule and it's kind of shitty. I appreciate it!! <3 <3 <3 Seeing that people like this makes me feel good as a writer. <3 <3 <3

_Yuvile_

And a long dinner it was…

By the time we’d finished eating—Derek leaning back contentedly and causing a stir of emotion in my stomach—I had a whole list of things I needed to research: allergies, popular human music, and various idioms that Derek wasn’t able to explain to me very well. I’d also found out in the worst way possible how _charming_ Derek was, much to my dismay. I’d not been able to calm myself down until the other man had turned his attention from our Beta female server—a normally safe bet for a newly mated Alpha-Omega pair—to me at the sound of the unintended growl I’d released.

And, peace be on the Moons, but he’d handled it like a champ, soothing the Beta’s frayed nerves and sending her on her way before focusing all his attention on me with something like reluctant amusement on his face. Despite his earlier reluctance, he managed to pull me from my fit of jealousy with that stupidly charming way of talking—about hobbies, no less.

His laugh, quiet as it was, pulled me from my musings over the dinner. I gave him a questioning look.

“Man, this was like an awkward first date,” he said, still smiling faintly, then his lips turned down and I mourned the loss of that smile for a brief moment before his expression evened out and he shrugged. “Only we already skipped the whole ‘dating’ thing and went straight to marriage…”

His fingers rubbed through the baby hairs on the back of his neck and seemed to unintentionally brush his bite mark. He jerked at what was likely a still intense sensation. He didn’t exactly look pleased about it all and it made my chest ache a little bit even if I already knew it. I glared at the table.

“Well…” he drawled, pulling me from my thoughts before I could become truly lost to them. “We’re stuck together and there’s nothing I can do to change that now… so it’s important to talk about what we’re expecting of this relationship for the time being…”

"You know what I'm expecting," I replied. It was obvious, I had made it quite clear what I wanted from our relationship. I wanted him to be my mate, my omega. What more did he want?

“No, no I don’t. And even if I _did_ somehow magically know what you wanted, _you_ don’t know what _I_ want from it.” Derek said voice aggressive but his tone even, clear eyes narrowed on me like lasers piercing flesh, but then his expression lightened up a bit. “You keep assuming little things like that and you’ll find yourself on the couch before you can say sorry.”

I was torn before growling at the challenge to my authority and confusion at the saying. What did being on a couch have to do with assuming things? Derek seemed to realize this and shook his head.

“I’ll explain it later. Right now we’re having an adult conversation.”

I growled a bit in frustration.

“Calm down, you can’t just growl at me every time I say something you don’t like… Not only will you literally be growling every other word, but as _an adult_ , it won’t work and it certainly won’t work as a king.” Derek sighed, “I get that things are different for you Neorian, okay? You made that pretty clear, but I’m not Neorian, and I don’t care how much you try to say otherwise… You’re going to have to work with me if we’re going to be together.”

I growled louder at his declaration, not only because of the words themselves but because he was _right_ and I _HATED_ it. After clenching my teeth for a minute, jaw aching with the pressure, I stopped and simply glared at the table in silence. Derek didn’t say anything… just leaned back and watched me.

He was _waiting_ for me, I realized. I sighed and let most of the frustration seep out with the breath.

“Then what do you want from our relationship?” I asked, feeling nerves twist my stomach to knots. I thought finding my mate would be easy, and bonding with them would mean less stress for me. This was proving to be the opposite.

“I think we should start slow,” Derek replied, eyes still trained on me with an intensity that I wondered at. “I’m not going to lie about it, Yuvile, I don’t love you and at the moment, I barely even _like_ you…” He raised a hand when I started to retort, hurt flaring in my stomach. “But I also don’t _know you_. I’m not saying I won’t eventually like you anything, but right now? No. That’s not something I can just start feeling overnight, and I shouldn’t be expected too… But I’m willing to try.”

I nodded hesitantly… that was good? Much better than the yelling from before, at the least, though I still didn’t like it.

“Like this dinner? It was good. Awkward, but what first date isn’t?” he grinned as if he had a good memory all of a sudden and I was struck with the irritating thought that he was thinking about a different first date with a different person. I kept a hold on the growl that threatened to vibrate out of my throat. He continued speaking, clearly ignoring the expression on my face, or maybe not noticing it. “As for sex, well, I’m no said, so abstinence is out.”

The was so at odds with all the serious things he’d just been discussing that it took a moment before the words truly registered in my head and I perked up a bit, giving him a probing look.

“Other than during that… h—heat,”—I grinned in amusement as he stumbled over the word—“thing you mentioned, I don’t really mind. Normally, I wouldn’t put out until at least a second date aside from one-night stands—I have class believe it or not—but well, for obvious reasons, I’ll let that rule slide.”

Ignoring that primal part of me that hated thinking of who knows how many past lovers Derek’s had, I run a hand through my hair. “Well, at least we agree on that point.” I paused and thought about how to phrase my next bit before sighing and just going with whatever happened to come out. “I do not expect you to love me right away, I realize that sort of adoration takes time, even between mates… who are not so strong willed, but… that you don’t appear to even like me… that is going to be hard for me to… accept… or, ah, perhaps understand is the better word?”

Derek gave me a half-hearted smile, “Well, you should happy I at least like your body… I had _never_ been interested in a man before… trust me, Nick tried to get me to date men hundreds of times—” he rolled his eyes at my growl. “You’re the only man I’m gonna have sex with, chill.”

“I’m the _only one_ you’re going to have sex with… at all.” I grumbled.

“You know what I mean…” he waved his hand with a sigh. “But we’re getting side-tracked.”

“Is there more?”

“For one, I want a safe-word… but we can talk about that later, since you clearly have no idea what that is…” Derek replied and his next sigh sounded heavier. “But, ah, this… next part isn’t really about you or our relationship… I mean, it relates to us, but…” he trailed off looking uncharacteristically nervous.

I took in a subtle deep breath and caught an alarming mixture of scents lurking beneath his: nervousness, irritation… _fear_ and something soft and painfully vulnerable that I couldn’t pin point. It was almost an omega scent, but I could smell the sweet distinct scent of omega lurking beneath even that and so I had no word for it.

“Yuvile?” his voice broke through my worried thoughts.

“Sorry,” I mumbled when he gave me a look that said he didn’t appreciate being ignored. The way he acted was still too much like an alpha and it set my own alpha instincts on edge. “What did you say?”

He was silent for a moment, expression tight like he didn’t like repeating whatever it was that he had to say. He sighed.

“What was my family told?” he asked, finally and I felt the muscles in my back stiffen up a bit. “I want to know what you all convinced the government with to just send me off without my consent. You did _tell_ them _something_ didn’t you?”

These were questions I knew he’d ask eventually, and yet still, I had no good way of answering. I took my time in thinking, chewing over how to explain it to him.

“We have a contract with the human governments. We help them, they help us… that sort of thing. When one of ours finds their mate is human, we submit a document and the government takes care of the rest, though I will admit that the means are… questionable, at best.”

“So… in exchange for your help, our governments _kidnap_ their citizens? Questionable is a serious understatement! I can think up about a thousand better ways to go about it and none of them involve deceiving the citizenry… Why would you agree to that? You’re the ones that _saved_ our planet, shouldn’t you be able to dictate the terms of your own treaties?” he demanded, eyes angry as he say up straighter, wincing only slightly at the sudden shift in position.

I frowned and tried to think up an answer to that… the answer I found left a bad taste in my mouth.

“The human government didn’t want to alarm the masses by disclosing the nature of Neorians—apparently it was for the best at the time and my father agreed to those terms. I tried to suggest we change it during our meetings, but on top of their reluctance, I was… distracted…”

“Distracted? And you do realize that that all sounds super shady, right? People _fear_ Neorians mostly because we know _nothing_ about them.”

I couldn’t help it as my focus zoned in on that last comment… a sick, nervous feeling that I was beginning to become accustomed to in my stomach.

“Do you fear Neorians?” I asked my voice strained with the emotion that this question invoked in me. “Are you scared of us? Of me?”

Derek fell silent and looked at me with such an open expression. Suddenly, I felt nauseous and I thought it’d have been better if I hadn’t of asked at all. Derek let out a loud sigh and that soft, vulnerable scent overwhelmed the spicy notes of anger and the sweet omega scent.

Every alpha instinct—no, ever instinct I had even beyond those of my alpha nature, stood on edge filling me with an almost all-encompassing need to comfort my mate.

“I’m not scared of you. I’m not scared of Neorians, either. Fearing unknown things is pointless.”

I waited, sensing there was more to what he wanted to say, my hands twitching against my thigh as I tried to restrain myself from pulling Derek into my lap and wrapping him in my scent. I didn’t think it’d be as appreciated by him as it might’ve been had he been raised a Neorian.

“But I am confused. I don’t understand you or anything about Neorians… I don’t understand this situation… and that? That I’m scared of,” The last sentence was so quiet I almost didn’t hear it, even as close to him as I was and in the silence of the dining hall. “I mean…” he started up again, louder this time and the anger was back. “How would you feel if you were kidnapped and woke up god-knows how many light years away from home with the very real possibility of _never_ seeing your friends or family again? I don’t even get along with my family for fuck’s sake and still it’s like this!”

My stomach lurched at his words and I snapped, giving into my instincts screaming at me. I pulled his chair towards me, causing him to let out a startled noise before pulling him into my lap as gently as possible. He made a disgruntled sound as I pulled him in as close to me as I could get. The position was awkward—uncomfortable even—but I held on.

There was a tart scent of surprise in his scent now, but now the sweet omega scent and something that didn’t twist my insides were overpowering that vulnerable scent that I realized didn’t fit Derek—or what I knew of him, at the least—at all. It was still there—and maybe it always had been there, hidden until this moment—but it was buried beneath all the other layers of Derek’s scent and that was enough for now.

Derek sighed, the air fanning against the crook of my neck where he’d dropped his face. The sigh sounded burdened.

“This is the only time you’re allowed to do this sorta thing,” he grumbled and the way his voice wobbled at the end I thought he might cry for a moment, but no tears fell and his breathing evened out.

I nuzzled at a spot behind his ear and he shivered against me. A brief flick of arousal laced through his scent which was heavy and heady where my nose was pressed into his soft black hair. Neither of us made a motion to react to it. Though the temptation was there, we were in a public space… well, semi-public.

But more than that, there was worry in my chest… Derek’s words ringing plainly—painfully—through my ears. Why had I not tried harder to change our contracts?


	12. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one month, what is this?!? XD I wonder how long it'll take me to write the next chapter... >.> I don't wanna think about it. ~.~ Ah, well, this chapter turned into pretty much porn with feels in it, so good luck with that. They have lots of sex and I guess that makes sense since this was supposed to be a five chapter smut story.  
> Um... warning for angst and shit in the next chapter? (Which is why it'll take me a hot second to write it).  
> Also warning, I literally hate this chapter, but it was kind of necessary and well, maybe when (if) I ever get to fixing this story up properly I'll expand it to something more tolerable. Also, I'm aware I mentioned that the trip was 'a month long' but I'm gonna say take that with a grain of salt and assume it's not exactly a month, but around a month so I don't have to be too specific. This universe is still in development so... yeaaahhh... >.>
> 
> Last thing... would anyone be interested in a top!Derek x bottom!Yuvile smut scene? (^o^)/ Let me know.

_Derek_

My thighs quivered as they barely managed to hold my weight, even in this position, or maybe, because of my position. My arms had long since given out after nearly an hour of Yuvile’s meticulous attention. And _finally_ he was giving me what I’d had to give up demanding for—more preoccupied now with breathing out frustrated moans.

I tried to push my hips back, impatient to feel what has come to be a familiar fullness over the last month—sex was something we both did _very_ well. A lack of leverage and firm hands on my hips stopped me and I felt the mostly familiar urge to punch him in the face. I didn’t—probably couldn’t—because I wanted him to just hurry up and fuck me into the mattress more, but I’d punch him later, I decided. I felt him sink into me until his hips pressed against my ass and we both released heavy breaths caught up in sensation.

“Fuck, Yuvile,” I groaned body singing with pleasure, but it wasn’t _enough_ , “ _Move._ ”

Yuvile stayed still for a lot longer than I deemed appropriate, and if it wasn’t for the fact I could feel the tremble in his hands and the way he kept shifting his hips as he tried to resist my demands, I might’ve thought he was going to stay still to try and prove some point I would later dispute—probably successfully.

But now wasn’t really the time for logical thinking and I was beginning to reach the point where begging was looking like a viable option when he finally growled slightly and pulled out only to slam back in again, forcing a half shout from my throat as sensation burned through me. The pace he set was the complete opposite of his earlier teasing foreplay, both of us too desperate to cum to bother with restraint, either with our movements or our moaning.

“Yuvile,” I gasped out with a whine that I’ve long since given up holding in, “I… I need—”

I break off as he bites at my neck—right over the bond bite—sending pain, a pleasant counterpoint to all the other sensations, and a familiar too heady feeling piercing through me short-circuiting my brain for a moment. And then I feel a too warm hand wrap around my erection and I can’t hold it any more, cumming before he can even finish a full stroke.

His canines prick my flesh for a second, his hands tightening on my hip and my dick for a moment, before he releases me and pulls back, hands gripping my hips with pleasantly bruising force, driving into me until I feel his knot start to swell and then pushing in until it catches and he grunts out what sounds sort of like my name through my pleasure high as he cums, warm and wet, inside me.

Neither of us move for a long moment, both of us desperately trying to catch our breath. Eventually, Yuvile carefully maneuvers us to our sides so that we can lay comfortably while we wait for his knot to go down. Somewhere in the back of my orgasm addled mind, I realize that I’m going to have to take _another_ bath and really, I’d told him to ask before knotting me, but I hadn’t done anything to try to stop him and it wasn’t like I was exactly opposed—apparently there was a whole list of things that I was suddenly pretty okay with.

I let myself doze a little, allowing Yuvile all the physical affection and post-coital cuddling he wanted. It’s not like it was unpleasant.

It was hard to believe how fast the month had passed. And while it had been subtle, the relationship between Yuvile and me had changed since that first dinner. Had I been more awake, I might’ve laughed as I thought back to it. Despite how well it’d gone, I’d needed some time to process and spent the next day ignoring Yuvile and reading some of the books on the tablet I’d woken up to that morning so long ago.

He’d forced me out of my self-imposed solitude by keeping me in bed for hours, and while I’d been stubborn at first, I’d eventually given in to the dark promises and heady scent that surrounded him. My enthusiastic reaction to his scent—which had led to this situation as well as several others since I started experiencing an alarmingly erratic increase in my sense of smell—startled me sometimes and I had spent more than a few hours ignoring him simply because I was mad at my own body for betraying me so fully.

Regardless, the sex, which we indulged in perhaps too often, helped relieve some of the tension between us—though it was still hard for me sometimes, to be 30 and suddenly realize that _yeah_ , I liked dick—and helped to smooth the way to something that I could sometimes almost label as the ‘normal’ early stages of a relationship.

Otherwise, our first week together had been rather boring, mind-numbingly so. I was instructed to remain in the room since I still refused to return the bite, and other than the books he’d given me, the only thing to pass the time with me was that he came and ate every meal with me, regardless of how much work he had to do—I scolded him about this sometimes, I’m an adult for fuck’s sake.

I huffed out a little laugh that choked off into a moan as Yuvile shifted his hips, placing kisses along my neck and rubbing his nose against a spot just behind my ear.

Needless to say, by the fifth day, I’d finished the book on the Oria panels and started thumbing through one of the ones on Neorian culture, though it never managed to hold my interest long. I took to roaming the ship, much to Yuvile’s obvious displeasure. Two or three days in, after a notable improvement in my mood, he was pretty much tolerant of my wanderings provided I didn’t let anyone touch me too much—I’d learned this the hard way, something about the bite or well, whatever, it’d ended in an 8 plus hour sex marathon that sent shivers down my spine just thinking about followed by nearly 12 hours of R&R.

It was fine; I didn’t need casual touches to talk, something I’d taken to doing with the engineers and maintenance crew.  They’d been absolutely horrified when I’d first appeared, drawn by the comforting scent of oil and machinery, and they’d realized who I was, but with some persistence and a grudging (read: _forced_ ) ‘okay’ from Yuvile, they welcomed the conversation.

The older head mechanic, Danorial, a female alpha, in particular seemed overjoyed by my interest in mechanics, often staying up quite late speaking to me about various mechanics of the ship and ignoring when I’d come in after such a night reeking of Yuvile and littered in bite marks which I wouldn’t have bothered to hide even if the frankly pointless shirts Yuvile kept providing me covered more than just my chest.

Her younger, beta male assistant, Avani, however, was not as thrilled by my presence. He was constantly grumbling about how ‘omegas belonged in the bedroom’ and making a habit of just generally pissing me off. A shiver of irritation sparked across my skin at the thought and Yuvile nuzzled my neck and made an inquisitive noise against my skin.

“’s nothing,” I mumbled, voice still scratchy. Avani’s attitude pissed me off, but I figured the consequences of putting that brat—barely 18 in Earth years!—in his place weren’t worth it, so I tended to just ignore him.

It wasn’t all sunshine and sex though. While I had become pretty comfortable sharing my space with Yuvile by now, we still argued quite frequently, both of us too stubborn for our own good. And of course, there was the magic, and the random bouts of sensitivity, and the mood swings they caused.

Magic should be cool, but instead it was just a random irritant, burning through me at random moments and usually resulting in something glass exploding or something being flung across the room—this had been Yuvile on at least two occasions—and frankly, I was getting tired of it. Sometimes my senses—usually my sense of smell, but sometimes my sense of touch or hearing—would heighten to the point that I’d be stuck in bed. Yuvile said both were normal and should stabilize after my first ‘heat’ according to some research he’d done after the first time I’d thrown him into a wall.

The feeling of Yuvile shifting his hips, his finally soft cock slipping from me, brought me back to the present and I groaned at the overstimulation, before frowning at the feel of cum slipping out. I was fortunately or not, too fucked out to care much beyond being aware of it. Of course, now would be a good time for my sense of smell to go haywire and I was overwhelmed by the scent of sex and Yuvile and what I’d come to recognize as ‘Alpha.’

I whimpered, burying my face in the pillow in an attempt to muffle some of the scent that was far too arousing for my tired body. I felt Yuvile’s hands glide across my skin as if he was aware of my distress. I allowed the gentle caresses, in no mood to fight the affection. I briefly wondered if I even _wanted_ to fight it at this point.

After what felt like too long, the intense scents eased to something more tolerable and I pulled my face from the pillow taking a deep breath before relaxing again. Yuvile made a rumbling sort of purring noise I’d come to realize was contentment and I gave a snort of fond amusement, feeling myself doze off to a sort of semi-conscious state.

My eyes blinked open in surprised realization suddenly at the warm buzz in my stomach. I spend nearly a full minute staring blankly at the empty space just past the edge of the bed, trying to sort through the frankly unexpected emotions curling around in my chest.

“Hey, Yuvile…” I break the silence, my voice pitched low but still sounding so loud in the quiet, and wait for his answering rumble. He sounds content and half asleep. “I…” I pause listening to his even breaths. “Ah, never mind…”

He hums in reply and curls more tightly around me slipping back into sleep.

 _‘I think I like you_ …’I wanted to say, but I didn’t. I closed my eyes. I’d tell him later, when we were both awake.


	13. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did it. \\(O.O)/ I actually wrote this chapter twice Y.Y Anyway, angst ahead. I'm working on the next chapter and am going to try and post it today (tonight at some point) as well, because I know I personally hate these sorts of chapters and just want to read through them as quickly as possible. I did try to add some bits about Neorian culture in (just some subtle things or rather, some not so subtle things pretending to be subtle) to ease some of the sad feelings in this chapter. This chapter actually stressed me out to write the first time, which is why I rewrote it and while I like this version better, I'm still not sure if I had Yuvile give up too quick... well, let me know!
> 
> Thank you to everyone who reads this and all the comments and kudos. I literally almost cry every time I see someone commented and I'm not gonna lie I've bragged to all my irl friends about all the kudos I've gotten. It makes me very happy.
> 
> Also, additional note, unrelated to this chapter, I realized that in chapter 10 I seemed to have left out an entire line of text when they're talking pretty early on in the chapter. I'm not sure where the text went or what it said originally but I added something so, there isn't a weird place with Derek replying to no one. One day I'll write that top!Derek x bottom!Yuvile scene too, but I think I want to finish the main story first.

_Yuvile_

A knock at my door startled me from where I was staring blankly at the document in front of me. Part of me hoped it was Derek, coming to break up what was already promising to be a monotonous day—though it was only the ships lights that kept such things straight—but I knew better.

He’d still been sound asleep when I’d left him an hour ago. He had a tendency to sleep well into the day if given the chance. Even more likely after last night’s activities.

“ _Come in,_ ” I choked out in my native tongue, Neosa. I felt like I hadn’t used it properly in a while, but I’d been using it with my assistants since returning to the ship, so I dismissed it as some figment of my imagination.

“ _Your majesty,”_ a quiet voice pulled my eyes from my never ending stack of documents. “ _I have a set of financial documents that need your input._ ”

I stared at the tablet in the small beta’s hands. It looked so innocent.

“ _How many?”_ I asked resignation in my voice.

“ _Seven… one from each of the major noble houses… I think the other three plan to have them submitted by the end of this month.”_ He replied. I barely managed to stifle my groan.

“ _That’s including the royal family, yes?”_ I asked, and felt at least a little relief. “ _I imagine my uncle will have their document ready and waiting for me when I arrive at the palace…”_

“ _Probably,”_ the beta—what was his name again? Kayli?—replied with a ghost of a smile crossing his lips.

I held out my hand. He stepped forward and bowed slightly, head tilting to expose his neck for a moment before he handed the document to me.

“ _Is there anything else?”_ I asked.

“ _No, your majesty.”_ He replied straightening up.

“ _Very well, you’re dismissed. I should be fine for the rest of the day, so unless anything urgent comes up you’re free to do as you please.”_ I replied, waving him out as I opened the first document.

The quiet swish of the door was the only sound as he left. I scanned through the first paragraph and then set it down with a frustrated noise. I leaned back and closed my eyes. For every document I got through, it seemed three appeared to take its place.

My mind floated, unsurprisingly, back to Derek. For all the time he’d been here, I’ve rarely had much time to be with him like I had at that first dinner, swamped as I was with paperwork. I just wanted one—preferably two—whole 24 hour period to spend, uninterrupted, with my mate. Not that we hadn’t spent _hours_ together in bed, of course, but I wanted something more.

Surely, Derek did too?

I sighed again. Perhaps it was for the best though… Derek had a bad habit of triggering my alpha instincts and not in a good way. Not to mention his _magic_. I’d done some research after one too many times being flung across the room and I knew it’d settle after his first heat—another point of frustration—but until then, it was nearly unpredictable. I had not been adequately informed of that bit, but I suppose it was different between each person.

As for his heat, sometimes when we were together, at least for the last week or so, I could scent his impending heat on him. It was probably still a little while off—if all went well we’d be at Neoria a few days before it hit—but it wasn’t helping the lingering tension between us.

And while making up from those relatively silly arguments was fun in its own way, I wanted to hear Derek laugh more.

Not that he didn’t laugh with me, of course, but compared to the ‘Derek’ that Danorial described when I spoke with her, well… they might as well have been different people entirely.

I slumped forward in an undignified manner, forcing my mind back to the task at hand. I pushed the tablet away, knowing they could wait and began sifting through the physical documents on my desk.

If Ansilu had been here, he’d have sorted them by urgency well before they’d reached me. I missed him.

Two hours and barely one and a half documents later, my comm unit sounded, a sharp noise compared to the gentle sounds of the music I’d been playing, startling me from the focus I’d finally found.

I felt a wave of frustration at the interruption until I noticed that it was Ansilu’s private comm number blinking on the screen. I answered eagerly, though I made a disappointed face when I realized that he had only connected audibly, not visually.

“Ansilu, to what do I owe the honor of this call?” I asked, pushing the documents away, already over the small disappointment and ready to just talk to my best friend.

“Are you alone?”

“Yes…” I replied, stomach dropping at his serious tone. “What had happened?”

“Your ship is in danger. The humans have planted some sort of spy… an engineer of some kind...” his voice held a familiar tone of worry that made me tense.

“What? Are you sure?” I asked, my heartbeat spiking, “When? Do you know what they’re planning?”

I began pulling up the log of all the humans currently on our ship.

“I—” Ansilu’s voice cut off almost as abruptly as the lights, the entire ship seeming to lurch.

I sat there stunned in the absolute dark, my ears ringing at the sudden silence. Somewhere in the ship, a loud echoing popping noise sounded before a quiet whirring noise buzzed to life and the emergency lights blinked on.

Heart still hammering in my chest, I reached for the tablet and let out a relieved sigh when it flashed to life, financial documents still up and waiting for my input.

A knock at my door made me jump.

“ _Come in._ ”

“ _Your majesty,”_ my guard, Ezekial, said with a quick bow. He didn’t bother showing his throat. “ _A messenger from the ship’s captain has arrived. He requests you meet with him and the head engineer in his quarters in half an hour._ ”

“ _Very well… Tell him I’ll be there._ ” I replied, minimizing the financial documents in my hand. “ _Also, make sure a Neorian guard is sent to watch Derek.”_

“ _Of course, your majesty,_ ” he stepped back out of the door and I could hear the mumble of his voice as he relayed my message. I was tempted to go to Derek myself, but Ansilu’s words were ringing in my mind.

I accessed the passenger logs on the tablet, hoping it was updated to include this flight. Thankfully, it was and I was able to filter it down to only humans currently on board. There were quite a few of them, but not as many as there could’ve been.

I skimmed through the files, noting various things attached to names. Unease prickled through me when I realized Derek was the only one with ‘engineering education’ listed. Well, if they really wanted an effective spy, putting his actual skills wouldn’t be the wiser choice. So that meant that this list wasn’t narrowed down at all. I sighed but knew it was getting time to walk to the captain’s office.

I had to keep calm though. Now wasn’t the time to be impatient… right? I tucked the tablet under my arm and made my way quickly to the captain’s quarters. Ezekial was tense where he walked behind me and that put my own nerves on end.

“ _Your majesty_ ,” Captain Vidan and Danorial chorused, both of them bowing to me, neither of them showing me there necks. A flash of irritation prickled through me because captain or not, as a beta, Vidan should’ve showed me his neck.

I pushed the irritation away for now, it wasn’t the time for that, and I had enough things to concern myself with than that.

“ _Captain… Danorial,”_ I greeted. I scented the air on reflex and nearly gagged at the stench of nervousness rolling off the engineer. I gave her a sharp look and she visibly paled.

“ _As I’m sure you’ve noticed, your majesty, we’ve suffered a main system power failure.”_ Vidan said, drawing my attention to him.

“ _Let me guess… initial reports suggest someone tampered with the ship…”_ I said and at his surprised nod, I sighed. “ _I was contacted by Ansilu. It seems on of the human governments sent someone to cause problems… though I am unsure what problems those may be…_ ”

“ _That’s not all, your majesty. Though it certainly explains things,”_ he sighed. “ _Danorial?”_

“ _Of course, Captain…”_ she stood straighter, eyes not quite meeting mine, “ _There was evidence of tampering—my assistant, Avani, is currently trying to find the exact spot that has caused the power failure—along with… Derek’s scent and DNA… some hairs and a piece of ripped clothes…”_

My stomach dropped as realization of what she was implying hit me.

“ _Video logs?”_ I asked as betrayal and anger made my stomach turn.

“ _Until full power is restored to the main system, they are inaccessible. Priority has been given to all life support systems. I’ve already given orders to clear out and seal off all unnecessary areas to conserve power and oxygen, just in case…”_ the captain replied. “ _I’ve sent for Derek to be brought here for questioning…”_

“ _Which is why you called me here…_ ” I said, my voice coming out sounding strained even to my own ears. I looked at Danorial. “ _Could Derek have done this?_ ”

“ _I…_ ” she broke off, and started again, frown marring her face. “ _He lacks some experience, but he’s smart and knows his way around our tools. He also picks things up quickly with little guidance…”_

“ _That’s not what I asked._ ” I growled.

“ _Yes. He could…_ ” she replied, tone sounding defeated.

I clenched my fists, disbelief and hurt fueling anger. Part of me couldn’t believe that Derek— _my mate—_ would betray me, but there was a quiet voice in the back of mind asking just how well I really _knew_ him. Hadn’t that been what I’d been lamenting on all morning?

He was my mate, yes, and I’d always assumed that that meant he would never betray me. But I realized with sudden heart-stopping clarity that I’d assumed a lot of things about meeting and being with my mate and Derek had been quick to crush all but the most primal of them… and even those he’d brought into question.

“ _Your majesty, if I may be so bold,_ ” Danorial said, drawing my attention. “ _Just because he could doesn’t mean he did… This sort of things seems—_ ”

“ _Silence,”_ I snapped, my alpha-blood sparking to life in my veins making my voice little more than a growl.

Danorial’s whole body jerked and she showed me her throat, desperate to appease rather than fight. I shoved the tablet still clutched in my hands at Ezekial, knowing I was moments from snapping it at this rate.

A knock at the door seemed to increase the tension already making the room feel smothering. When Derek entered, the first thing I noticed was he hadn’t bathed. He looked sleep rumbled, but otherwise as unaffected as usual, eyes sharp and burning with a familiar expression of contained irritation.

A primal part of me was pleased that Derek still reeked of our sex, proud that everyone would know, but another angrier hurt part of me mockingly applauded  what was surely a tactic meant to distract of appease me.

“Yuvile? What’s going on?” he asked, and then as he took in the atmosphere in the room, sighed. “I’m taking it that this isn’t some sort of routine power failure…” At that he sent a glare at the beta standing behind him.

Possessive jealousy surged up inside me for a moment, but I squashed it. Mate or not, he’d _betrayed_ me.

“That’s what I could like to know.” I growled, not able to keep all my emotions in check.

Confusion colored his scent and expression.

“What’re you talking about?” he asked, eyes narrowing and irritation settling across his features once more. “Stop growling and just tell me what’s going on.”

“Derek,” Vidan said, his voice heavily accented. “I summoned you here to ask you questions regarding your involvement in the willful tampering and disabling of the ship’s main power system with the intention of causing harm to both the vessel and its passengers.”


	14. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I meant to post this yesterday (when I finished writing it), but I literally couldn't keep my eyes open so in the end it had to wait until tonight (this morning? whatever). To be honest, it's still a bit lack luster, I guess? But it's a lot better than the first draft, so I'm gonna put this one down as a win. There will only be a little angst after this, also I unexpectedly fell in love with Avani? So yeah, enjoy him. I already accidentally decided a background/romance for that babe, so maybe look forward to that in the future? Also, I'm ready for Ansilu's story. *.* But I gotta focus. One at a time. I'm almost done; if things go as planned I only have four chapters left of this main piece. O.O (I'm not sure my heart is ready)
> 
> Thank you again for the comments, they are precious and I just die a little with happiness every time. <3 <3 XOXO

_Derek_

I stared slack jawed at the man in front of me—the captain, my brain belatedly chose to inform me, who I’d met all of one time when Yuvile was eating with me about two weeks ago—for probably a full minute as I struggled and failed to register his words through the shock.

“What?” I asked. Surely I’d misheard him?

“Did you tamper with the ship’s power system?” Yuvile asked his voice too quiet for the rage I could see in the way he trembled ever so slightly. I’d never seen him so angry before. There was an acrid scent rolling off him in suffocating waves, something painful that and overwhelming, that made that still foreign part of me whimper.

“I… what? Why would you…? No. Why—” I broke off as realization suddenly slammed into me, the true meaning behind those words finally connecting in my mind. The throbbing pain in my chest was unexpectedly intense, and really shouldn’t have been as much of a surprise as it was. But here I was, caught completely off guard. “Of course I didn’t… why would I do that?”

My voice sounded strange to my ears as if through cotton and I can’t remember the last time I’d struggled this hard to accept something as reality. Not even my first day here had caused me this much inner turmoil so quickly.

And that had been a doozy of a day.

“Then _who_ did it, Derek?” he snapped.

I couldn’t stop myself from taking an unconscious step back. My eyes were burning but I refused to do something like cry, mood swings and magic be damned. That alone sent a burst of anger through me, the feeling bubbling up in my chest like acid and I reclaimed my original place, I wouldn’t back down. Not from Yuvile, and especially not because of something like feeling hurt for being accused of something like this.

 “How the fuck should I know?” I hissed, trying to let out all of the hurt and anger I was feeling, trying not to let them overwhelm me. It was working so well… because, honestly, _how dare he_? “I can’t believe that I actually thought that I… You’re a real piece of work, you know that? You stupid…” I broke off with a growl of my own, hating the way the words seemed to get caught in my throat, the way they jumbled together, “Fuck.”

I wanted to scream, if I was being honest. I wanted to punch something, to punch _him_. How dare he think that? That I’d betray him. How dare he think that I’d spent the last month trying to work with him, trying to make this whole stupid relationship work, even though I’d never asked for it, even though it was the furthest thing from what I’d wanted, all just to throw it away on something as stupid and potentially harmful to _myself_ as shutting down the ship’s main power?

“What am I _supposed_ to think? You’re the one all the evidence points to!” Yuvile yelled, and I almost flinched back, forcing myself to hold my ground, letting anger keep me steady.

“Evidence? What _evidence_?” I snapped back. “Why would I even _do_ this? What the hell would I even _possibly_ get out of doing something like that?”

“Your hair, your scent,” he listed, voice harsh in a way that made something inside of me tear a little bit. “A piece of your clothing… What other evidence do I _need_?”

“I’m literally _always in the engine room_ , of course my hair and scent is there!” I said, wanting to yell, but trying to keep a lid on the betrayed fury. “And why the hell would I leave a piece of clothing behind? I’m not stupid, Yuvile!”

“ _That’s_ your defense?” Yuvile asked, clearly beyond rationality.

“You didn’t even answer my other question!”

“I don’t _need_ to, Derek!” he growled, stepping forward in the most threatening way I’d seen yet. I stepped forward too, challenging him, losing the battle against my fury.

“Fuck you!” I growled back, “Get me some fucking video footage of me sabotaging your stupid ship, asshole, cuz it’s surely fucking news to me!”

“I CAN’T!” he yelled. “With the power off we don’t have access to them, which is very convenient for you, isn’t it?”

The hurt just kept coming.

“Yeah, it _is_ convenient… Almost as convenient as you suddenly deciding I’m guilty with nothing but frankly questionable evidence and no motive.” I replied, voice full of barely concealed rage.

“Then prove you didn’t do it!” he snapped forcefully.

“I will! I’ll fix whatever it is and _show_ you that I didn’t do it.” I growled, this time it was me trembling, but not entirely with rage. “I’ll _prove_ it and make sure you get the real criminal.”

Before I could turn and make a dramatic exit, someone cleared their throat. My eyes, still burning with held back tears, snapped to them. Avani was standing there with a weary expression on his face.

“What?” Yuvile growled.

“I found what looks to be the main cause of the power failure…” he said, not even flinching as he motioned to indicate the tablet in his hands. “But it’s not something I’m familiar with, so I’m hesitant to try and disable it myself.” He finished, pausing before adding, as if it was an afterthought, “Your majesty.”

Yuvile growled, but I held out my hand to take the tablet before he could say anything. Avani hesitated a moment before he bowed ever so slightly, showing his neck to me before handing the tablet to me. There was a sharp intake of breath from Danorial’s direction. I didn’t understand the gesture—I’d seen several people perform the same gesture to Yuvile—but it was not lost that he’d clearly done it towards me, not Yuvile.

I took the tablet, taking some comfort in the skin to skin contact when he passed it to me, regardless of how irritated the young Neorian usually made me feel. The image that came to life on the screen made me freeze. It was a rather unassuming little square device with a couple of blinking lights and no noticeable switches or connectors.

After the initial shock wore away, I felt the manic urge to laugh. And so I did. Of course the situation could get even more bizarre. I’d reached the breaking point it seemed, but the irony wasn’t lost on me. Avani’s bewildered expression almost sent me into another fit of laughter, but the hurt was still too new for me to fully relish such a look.

“Well, at least now I know why they planted evidence…” I said, handing the tablet back to Avani. “The device either malfunctioned or, perhaps, was purposefully altered to fail. In either event, they’d need a scapegoat... whoever ‘they’ are.”

“And what exactly was it supposed to do?” Avani asked, eyes narrowing on the tablet as if he realized something uncomfortable and was irritated by it.

“Shut off and redirect all power on the ship—gravity generators, life support systems, backup generators, everything—to the engines causing an explosion big enough to wipe out at least half the ship before anyone has a chance to even respond…” I replied.

Avani made a face like I’d just confirmed his unpleasant thoughts.

“You are not really helping your situation,” the captain said in that stilted English of his.

“No?” I sighed, pushing as much angry sarcasm into the word as possible.

“How do you know what this device does?” Avani asked, sounding genuinely curious. Figures the kid would be the only one asking sensible questions. The others seemed so sure of my guilt, maybe questions and confirmation weren’t something they needed.

“Well, I had this roommate in college for a few months…” I replied, wincing at the memory. “Nice guy, a bit of a recluse though… also a nasty habit of using my computer to download highly classified documents. Anyway, long story short, I saw the plans for this device like 10 years ago or something and nearly went to prison.” At Avani’s inquisitive noise, I continued. “Needless to say, not only was I genuinely horrified at such a weapon—labelled under a folder for environmental recover, of all things—but I also got a too up-close and personal look at the FBI, and so while the experience and memory have stuck with me, it’s not something I like to bring up in casual conversation…”

“Can you dismantle it?” Danorial’s voice piped up and I looked at her.

“I can,” I replied, with a little hesitation, “With a little help.”

The last comment I directed at Avani, looking at him meaningfully. He nodded.

“Show me what you’ve got, omega.” He said that cocky tone in his voice familiar.

I snorted, but there was a sense of relief that came with the small display of trust. Yuvile growled again, but the hurt of his distrust was still too present and so ignoring him, blatantly no less, was easy.

“You’ll probably need to be ready to reboot the main power system…” I informed Danorial. She nodded.

“Shall we get to work?” I asked and, still determinedly ignoring the majority of the people in the room, at Avani’s nod, let him lead me to the engine room. We were quiet as he led me to where the device was half hidden in a jumble of wires and tubes that to anyone else might’ve seemed a mess.

“Avani…” I said voice quiet in the thrum of the room. “Before we start, I was hoping I could ask you something…”

Avani gave me a look like he’d rather I do anything else, but he nodded.

“You’ve acted like you hated me up until now… so why’re you being so helpful? Cuz, I appreciate it, really I do, but I’m curious.”

“Just because…” he said, dismissively.

“Just because, huh?” I chuckled, “Thanks.”

We set up a couple of portable hang lights to brighten up the area and then got to work. It was an excruciatingly slow process and more than once we encountered some difficulty not only with my memory of the schematic but also with the general process. No one came to disturb us, something that surprised me, considering they’d accused me of treason, but I didn’t look bother to look the gift horse in the mouth, as it was, and eventually we finished.

We were both covered in oil smudges and my fingers were stiff and littered with small scratches and minor burns, but it was fully removed and dismantled.

I leaned back with a relieved sigh.

“Well, that was a painfully long five hours…” I groaned as I looked at the time blinking on the tablet we’d set up for reference. “We’ll need to check over the whole thing again, just in case we missed something… but that shouldn’t take too long with both of us, right?”

Avani grunted his agreement and we lapsed into silence once more. I was content enough to bask in the quiet humming of machinery and the scent of lubricants and oil, letting it calm me down in a way I hadn’t ever expected it to.

 “About what you asked before…” Avani said, pulling me from where I was mentally drifting. “I’ve never met an omega that’s acted like you before… you seem to defy everything an omega is supposed to represent…”

I snorted, somewhat in amusement, somewhat in sympathy. He was still a brat, after all.

“Did you ever think that some of those omegas you’ve met have only acted that way because _society_ says that’s how they’re supposed to act?”

Avani gave me another startled expression, electric purple eyes widening, and I let myself appreciate it this time because I was sure it wasn’t an expression he made often. He looked as if he might not have entirely understood my question even though he understood all the words that made it. I kept myself from grinning.

“Think about that when you’ve got a while and let me know what you come up with…” I said, standing to try and stretch out all the kinks I had from being in one position for far too long. My entire body protested and I had never felt so old before. “For now, let’s get that sweep done.”

An hour later and we were done, both of us relieved that nothing else had turned up.

“I’ll go tell Danoiral to start the reboot...” Avani suggested as we headed towards the door. “You should go rest… and bathe. You smell terrible.”

“I can only imagine,” I laughed, but the sound was strained, the tension building somewhat in my shoulders the closer to the exit we got. “I could say the same to you.”

He lifted an eyebrow at me and I shrugged unapologetically.

“You can borrow my quarters, if you’d like. I can sleep elsewhere.” He offered tone serious in a way that made my chest ache.

“No, I’m a lot of things, but I’m not a coward…” I replied with a shrug. “I’ll just kick him out if he pisses me off…”

I paused before stepping into the hallway. “Would you mind letting me know when they find out who did it?”

He nodded and I stepped out of the room and, completely ignoring the guard that had been tailing me since this whole mess started, headed along familiar halls to the room I’d come to recognize as ‘mine’, or more recently, ‘ours.’

He wasn’t there when I arrived, something I was grateful for, but the whole room smelled of us and I hated how acutely I could pick out his scent now. How readily I did it even after everything that’d happened. I hated the ache it caused in my chest and the sense of abandonment that seemed to come from that foreign part of me that I was belatedly realizing was the ‘omega’ instincts people kept assuming I’d had.

Anger prickled across my skin with renewed vigor. I’d changed so much after just a month. And I knew there was even more changes to come, though I didn’t know what those changes might be. To think, I’d even gone so far as to think I’d _liked_ him even though he apparently didn’t even _trust_ me!

I closed my eyes and took a sharp breath before letting it out carefully.

“You can just hang out outside the door, can’t you?” I asked, as I repeated the careful breathing process.

“Of course, your highness.” The guard replied. “Just call if you need me.”

“Thanks.” I replied and listened to the _swoosh_ of the door closing behind him.

Yuvile had every right to suspect me, circumstantial evidence—or planted, rather—or not… we’d only known each other for a month… and other than sexual preferences, how much did we honestly really _know_ about each other?

I’d regret it later, but I forewent the bath and merely flopped face first onto the bed, stubbornly ignoring the smell of Yuvile still clinging to the sheets. Surely I’d have thought the same thing if our situations had been reversed…? No. I might’ve kept an eye on him, but I wouldn’t have accused him of it until I’d had undeniable proof. I’d have at least tried to rule him out before blowing up at him…

Had he tried to rule me out?

My stomach churned at the thought. I shouldn’t take it too personally, I knew that. He was new to being a king, right? He was young and hot blooded—all things I knew, logically. Twenty one might be an ‘adult’ but only barely. I remember being that age, how easy it was to become overwhelmed by emotions and life…

But still… it made me doubt risking my heart for him. I groaned at the thought feeling silly for it, but there was no doubt that given time I could grow to really like the hot-headed idiot.

At some point, I managed to nap, though fitfully, my mind still whirling with too many thoughts and feelings, and a knock at the door had me jerking into full awareness, heart hammering in my chest.

After giving myself a moment to get composed, I stumbled to the door, opening it to reveal Avani, the guard politely looking away. He wrinkled his nose at me and the copper colored wolf ears on his head twitched. I gave a half-hearted shrug by way of explanation.

“They’ve found and detained the culprit…” Avani informed me and it was only then that I realized the main lights were back on. I nodded, feeling a rush of relief ease some of the tension in my shoulders. “I think they’re almost finished with the first round of questioning…”

“Thanks for letting me know,” I replied, running fingers through my hair and wincing at the dirty feel of it.

“Are you hungry?” Avani asked, suddenly. “The main dining hall should be open…”

I briefly recalled the first day I’d spent with Yuvile when he’d mentioned that he didn’t like the thought of someone else ‘providing’ for his mate. Oh well, he wasn’t here.

“If you keep acting this nice to me, Yuvile’s going to get jealous…” I replied, forcing more cheer into my voice than I honestly had to spare.

“If he’s not going to care for you properly, then he deserves it,” Avani answering sounding vexed on my behalf.

A growl interrupted my reply and I looked past Avani to see Yuvile there. Avani’s eyes narrowed on him. Even I could realize how brazen such an action was.

“Your majesty,” he bit out.

Yuvile’s whole body screamed aggression and I just wanted him to chill. I’d had enough yelling and anger for one day.

“Yuvile,” I said, loudly, pulling his attention to me. “We need to talk.” I gave Avani a small smile, patting his shoulder. “Thanks for the offer, but I’ll have to pass for today. Why don’t you go take a nap? You look tired. I’ll come eat with you tomorrow or something? You can show me that game you mentioned…”

Avani shot a glare at Yuvile then looked back at me gaze slightly softer and he bowed, showing his neck to me again. Yuvile growled again but Avani ignored him and walked away down the hall and out of sight. I would definitely need to ask about that, but… some other time, after things had settled down.

I glanced at Yuvile, unable to meet his eyes for long. “You just gonna stand there?” I asked, stepping aside so he had room to enter.

He shuffled past me and I easily slam the door—mentally anyway—in his guard’s face. I didn’t want any more witnesses to what could become another screaming contest. I was too tired for that.

“So, I believe I’ve proved my point…” I said, turning and going to sit at the small table in the other corner of the room, far from Yuvile.

“Derek…” Yuvile started then stopped then made a frustrated noise. “Why haven’t you showered? It’d be one thing if it was just... but you reek of Avani…”

“I was tired,” I replied bluntly. “And of course I do. We spent over five hours together bent over a badly constructed device hoping we wouldn’t accidentally start a fire… or worse.”

Yuvile looked properly scolded, if very displeased, but I wasn’t finished.

“You’re the one who kept harping about being mates, but you couldn’t even bring yourself to _trust_ me?” I ground out, voicing the thought that stung the most. It felt underhanded and I immediately sighed and glared at the table. “This isn’t what I meant when I said we needed to talk…”

I didn’t apologize though. I wasn’t the one in the wrong here.

“I’m sorry.” Yuvile said, frowning harshly. I hated that look on his face, and I hated that I hated it. “I… I shouldn’t have accused you of that… not without…” he trailed off looking lost and I was struck once again—and probably not for the last time—by how _young_ he looked.

“No, you shouldn’t have, but I get it…” I managed, glancing briefly at him before letting my eyes dart around the room, “I can’t forget it just like that, but I can understand, so…”

“Thank you,” Yuvile replied, sounding half reluctant and half remorseful.

Silence weighed heavily between us and I fidgeted with my hands for a while before finally breaking it.

“The real culprit… did you get any answers?”

“The ship was meant to explode…” Yuvile said before heaving a heavy sigh, ears twitching and I felt that stupid desire to touch them well up from that omega part of me. I pushed it down. I wasn’t ready to indulge in that sort of familiarity quite so soon after this. “He had planted evidence pointing to you in the event the device failed… he wouldn’t explain it completely—though I doubt he’ll withhold much once he’s handed over to the Investigators—but it seems he was hoping to destabilize our government, one way or the other. Once we arrive at the capital, we’ll of course, be launching a full scale investigation and thinking up a strategy to uncover the who and why…”

I hummed my acknowledgement, letting the information swirl around in my mind. The whole thing felt too big and I felt the familiar sense of foreboding that had accompanied our discussion of the treaties between the Neorians and the humans. Something wasn’t quite right there, but I wasn’t in the proper headspace to bother with it. That was more Nick’s area of expertise. The thought of my friend sent a pang through my chest and I slumped forward a bit before an idea sparked in my mind.

“You have someone there looking into it, right?” I asked. “On Earth, that is…” at Yuvile’s nod, I continued. “There’s a man, he’s a detective. His name’s Nick Coriander… He’s a close friend of mine. I think he’d be able to help.”

Yuvile gave me an appraising look before nodding. “I’ll see to it that Ansilu’s informed. At this point, there is little point in keeping to the human government’s rules if they are trying to start a war with us…”

“Avoiding war would be the best,” I replied. “War does nothing good for anyone.”

“I agree,” Yuvile said, then glanced at the bed and then the shower and then finally at me. “The ship will need a few days before it can resume its course… so there is little that can be done on that matter for now…” he was silent for a long moment before he cleared his throat and asked. “Will you go bathe now?”

I gave a tired huff of laughter and nodded. “Yeah, I was getting tired of being covered in sweat anyway…” I replied, rubbing the back of my neck. Goosebumps broke out across my skin as my fingers brushed the bite mark on my neck, a remainder of the permanency of our relationship.

It was going to be a long few days.


	15. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I drew some art for these guys! So check it out if you want (it's on my tumblr)!! I'm a craptastic artist, so please forgive the multitude of mess ups. <3 It's my thanks for sticking with me. Let me know what you think <3
> 
> SFW --> http://fairiefriendly.tumblr.com/post/157874571737/my-sfw-pics-of-derek-yuvile-and-a-soft-pic-of  
> NSFW --> http://fairiefriendly.tumblr.com/post/157874390347/my-nsfw-pictures-that-i-drew-for-the-alpha-king
> 
> Alright, there are some talks in this chapter. Hopefully this is a proper setup to what I'm going for.... Anyway, please enjoy!! (Sorry for any mistakes grammar/spelling wise, I'm terrible at editing ^^; ) Let me know if the links above don't work, too!

_Derek_

I closed the document I was reading—some rather boring something about the history of the Neorian aristocracy—and dropped my head on the table as a cold chill swept up my spine. Maybe I was getting sick? I’ve been getting cold chills a lot for the last couple of days, and there was that nauseous feeling last night before bed…

Or maybe it was just the stress? With the random bouts of oversensitivity increasing and the tension on the ship—particularly between Yuvile and me—yeah… I could see how I could have caught something…

The sound of the door sliding open made me sit up and glance at Yuvile who honestly looked almost as tired as I felt. There was a twinge of guilt curling in my stomach I wasn’t ready to acknowledge, so instead, I glanced back at the tablet and opened a new document, but I couldn’t keep my focus, so I stopped trying and turned to where he’d sprawled out across the bed, arms above his head and eyes closed, but still awake.

“Are you done for the day?” I asked, feeling a little awkward after the hours of the silent treatment I’d given him over the last few days. That quiet part of me that I was now easily able to recognize as my ‘omega instincts’ wanted to go curl up against him… wanted to make up for all the physical contact that I’d been denying both of us since everything had happened.

I wanted it to shut up, to be completely honest. I wasn’t quite ready to throw myself bodily back into the same relationship we’d had before.

The bite mark on my neck itched and I tried to rub it subtly, ignoring the flood of sensation.

“Yeah,” he replied, his ears twitching slightly and perking up, though he didn’t move otherwise.

“Have they made any progress with that guy?” I asked, turning back to the open document and thumbing through it, not taking in any of the words, really more to occupy my hands.

An irritated growl was the immediate response to my question and I paused before he grunted out a rough, “No…”

I made a noncommittal noise in reply before closing the document in defeat. I wasn’t going to get anywhere on that any time soon.

“If you’re tired, we can sleep,” I informed him, already going to the light switch without waiting for an answer.

“Derek… we don’t have to… I—”

“It’s fine. I couldn’t focus any way, and anymore reading on the significance of Neoria’s three moons, fascinating as it is, is gonna give me a headache…” I replied as I walked over after my eyes had adjusted to the darkness. I could feel his eyes on me as I trailed around the bed and climbed onto my side.

“You already finished the document on Neorian communication technology?” he replied, sitting up and moving more onto his side, his voice slightly surprised, but mostly amused.

“It was pretty similar to one I’d read back home, so I got to skip the boring stuff…” I said, settling down, sprawling across my half as much as I could without touching Yuvile.

“I imagine you’ve read quite the number of books…” he said, around a yawn before asking, “Something I’ve not understood… you obviously have an impressive array of knowledge of your chosen profession, and quite some skill… but from what I recall, you didn’t have a job in the field?”

I gave a grunt in acknowledgement of the question as I took a moment to try and formulate a proper response.

“Experience is _everything_ in that field…” I said, remembering a similar and yet entirely different conversation I’d had what felt like so long ago. “That incident with the FBI I mentioned? Yeah, well that and a few… only slightly related incidents with the local police meant getting even an internship during or immediately after college was nearly impossible… Thankfully, I’d still had the job at the club, so I just figured I’d work on a portfolio type approach or something, but before I knew it, it’d been eight years and I’d made no progress at finding my dream job… or any related job to work my way up, for that matter…”

Yuvile hummed in response and silence settled over us like a familiar and itchy blanket. After nearly three minutes of quiet, I was fairly certain that he’d fallen asleep.

“I’m sorry,” his voice was loud and I jerked slightly in surprise.

“Pardon?”

“I’m so sorry, for not trusting you…” he sounded like a child, small and very unlike himself. It unsettled me a bit. “I know I have no excuse for the way I acted, but I truly am sorry.”

I didn’t know how to respond. A quietly petty part of me—the part of me still hurt and angry—wanted to tell him off, but here he was offering an olive branch, so to speak, and what kind of adult would I be for swatting it away so crassly and over something so immature?

“I’ve already forgiven you for the most part…” I answered quietly, feeling a bit bare putting the truth out there so plainly.

“Then can I—”

“But,” I cut off the question I knew was coming. “I think _we_ need to work on trust before we go back to how we were… I’m too old to be toyed with.”

“I wasn’t toying with—”

“That’s not something you get to decide, Yuvile.”

A frustrated noise escaped him and I felt the bed shift slightly as he rolled away.

“I don’t like it… but I’m not completely stupid, at least… I won’t push… as long as I know there is something at the end.”

“That’s entirely up to you… I told you, I’m willing to try.” I said and huffed out a quiet laugh at the frustrated noise he made. “Go to sleep, Yuvile. I’m sure you’ll have plenty more documents to sign in the morning.”

He huffed out a laugh of his own.

“I swear they multiply with each other…” he was quiet for a moment before saying, “Goodnight, Derek.”

“Goodnight.”

I stayed awake for at least another hour just listening to him breath and chasing thoughts like rabbits through my mind before I finally managed to fall asleep.

“Derek…” Yuvile’s voice—urgent and rough—pierces through the darkness of sleep that felt far too short. I grumble irritably at him, but the comforting lull of sleep keeps me from entirely processing the meaning behind his tone. “Derek!”

His voice was louder and more insistent this time and I sit up to glare at his outline as my eyes adjust. “ _What_?”

I didn’t like to be woken up so unexpectedly. He should’ve known that by now, so he better have a good reason for doing so.

“You’re about to go into heat…” he replied, voice strained. It took a full minute for the words to register in my head.

“I’m about to… what? No, I’m not,” I replied, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “I feel… fine?” I added, unsurely.

I was a little cold, but while not entirely normal, wasn’t really that weird.

“Derek…” his voice was rougher now. “Please trust me on this… you’re about to go into heat.”

“You told me I’d be fever hot and nauseous when it started for the first time,” I replied, exasperated and not in the mood to deal with this so early (late?) “I don’t feel either of those things… why do you think that?”

“Your scent… it’s…” he groaned and I noticed his aborted movement towards me. “Blessed be the moons…”

He was out of the bed and stalking towards the light switch in the blink of an eye, not finishing his sentence. He flicked the light on and I winced at the brightness.

The sensitivity didn’t dwindle at all like it normally did as my eyes adjusted, so I slammed my face into my pillow with only some irritation. I heard his footsteps and then he was saying something sharp and quick in a language I didn’t understand—Neso, I believe Avani had called it when I’d asked.

“Derek?” Yuvile’s voice was closer, coaxing me to look at him. I did, the light still too bright and stinging my eyes.

I startled ever so slightly at just _how_ close he was…perfectly within grabbing distance. And if that wasn’t a weird thought, then perhaps the one that said I should do just that and pull him close was. The desire to do so hit me like a ton of bricks and I had to wonder if it’s because I’d been denying myself the pleasure since that incident with the ship’s system.

I was halfway to grabbing him before even realizing I’d moved and my hands twitched in the air before I thought ‘fuck it’ and grabbed him, efficiently ignoring the warning bells blaring somewhere in the back of my mind.

“Wait, Dere—” he started only to be cut off as I slammed my lips clumsily into his. We both groaned at the sensation as I wiggled into a better position and pulled him on top of me, all while kissing the life out of him.

Some part of me rumbled with pleasure as U was wrapped in his scent and warmth.

I made a slightly desperate noise in the back of my throat as he dominated the kiss, pressing in as close to me as possible.

Just as quickly as I’d started it, though, he stopped, jumping up and away from me, chest heaving and eyes dilated and glowing. He looked nearly feral with _want_ , the scent of it heavy in the air.

I missed the warmth of his body instantly. I hadn’t realized how _cold_ I was…

“Derek…” he said, voice already sounding wrecked and I whined in response.

That extremely uncharacteristic sound—outside of actual, clothes-off sex, anyway, not that I’d ever admit to that out loud—was enough to pull the warning bells to the front of my mind and snap me out of…whatever I’d gotten stuck in and back into reality.

“Fuck…” I groaned, rolling away from Yuvile and to my feet, very nearly falling back onto the bed at the wave of dizziness that made the world spin around me. “Fuck…” I repeated as I slumped against the wall furthest from Yuvile who’d also retreated to a corner of the room, that wild look still visible in his eyes and the way his ears and tail twitched.

“Derek…” Yuvile repeated, and I growled in frustration as the sound sent a spear of warmth through me. “I told them to prepare a heat room… what… Derek what do you need… want me to do?”

I couldn’t bring myself to reply immediately as a feeling of nausea made the world spin again like I’d thrown back a few too many shots and it was quickly catching up to me. This lasted for nearly a minute before the nausea and cold eased up some.

“I don’t want to…” I shook my head hoping to clear it, but only succeeded in making it worse before like a dream it was gone and I felt fine again, only some lingering lightheadedness left as proof of my experience. I groaned slightly. “Alone…” I ground out. “I’ll deal with it by myself. It’s only gonna last five days, right?”

“Yeah…” he responded and I could see how white his knuckles were and I feared for a moment that he might hurt himself. “Today will be bouts of that with long breaks of clarity… tomorrow should be much of the same, just more time in heat and less time being rational…”

“Third day is the bad one, right?”

He nodded.

“And we arrive in Yu… Yuorion?” he nodded, “On the fourth day? How’s that going to… work, exactly…?”

“I’m… I believe this ship is scheduled for another trip, to one of the provinces, but I could—”

“No, we’ve caused enough trouble without delaying it further… Fourth day isn’t _too_ bad, right? I can probably handle a car ride, right?”

“It’s not you I’d be worried about, necessarily…” he replied his face one of displeasure. “That’s going to require you to _trust_ me.”

“Trusting you with my ‘feelings’ as it were, is one thing, Yuvile. I don’t trust very many people with those, but I never said anything about not trusting you.”

“But earlier you—”

“Said _we_ need to _work_ on it…” I cut him off quickly. “Implying there is something there to work on… The problem was never whether _I_ trusted _you_ … the problem was _you_ trusting _me_."


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the delay. And even worse, it's not even that great of a chapter. x.x; Well, the next one should hopefully be better. I've been doing so much world building on other stuff that this story just kind of got lost in it all, I guess. I'll try and update soon-ish but no promises. I've changed so much in this world and developed my Nerorians so much more that it's almost painful for me to keep writing it in its current state. lmao
> 
> Lots of love <3

Chapter 15

_Yuvile_

This was horrible, I decided. Though at least one good thing had come from my attempt to keep from falling to the slow madness of ignoring my mate in heat…. Anything that had required my attention, no matter how tedious, was finished with the fierce determination of one trying to achieve a great feat of willpower.

Nothing had prepared me for this torture, not my studies on Neorian biology, or my father’s experience with my mother’s heats, nothing. The silent call of my instincts in response to the incomplete bond with my omega in heat was so intense it felt like someone was constantly squeezing my lungs. I couldn’t even imagine what it’d be like if this was a full bond.

I released a frustrated growl and finished signing the document on the development of environmentally friendly water systems and conservation and handed it to my stiff attendant, a beta because even _seeing_ another alpha made me so agitated I was even intolerable to myself.

“The next document,” I said, trying to keep the growl from my tone, “Please.”

“That was the last of them, your majesty.” She stuttered out. I nearly snapped the pen in my hand.

“Very well… you’re dismissed. You’ve earned a much needed day off, so take tomorrow to rest.”

“Yes, sir, thank you,” she said with a deep bow, “I’ll be taking my leave then.”

I waved my hand to indicate acceptance and cradled my face in my hands as the door shut behind her. IT was only just the end of day two. Even during the long dark months of Neoria’s two winters, time never seemed to move quite so slowly.

I let myself wallow in my self-pity before straightening up and sliding over a separate tablet and opening it with the passcode and then thumbing through the files. Dozens of documents on everything related to the sabotage incident, including detailed files on both Derek and the culprit. I avoided Derek’s file.

I knew something would need to be done to prevent incidents like this in the future… not to mention dealing with the ones responsible for it…  Neorians, on principle, had no love for war or violence, but we knew the consequences of pacifism… Perhaps it was time to call a meeting with the Head of Anealkil about reviving their contract. They had been without an active contract for decades and I was loathe to renew it in my lifetime, but it was my duty to see that my people and mate were kept safe.

I opened Derek’s file and looked longingly at his image, his cocky little smirk and the mischievous sparkle in his eyes not lost in the photo.

_Yes, but your mate is currently alone crying for you while you waste time on things you cannot do anything about right now…_ an angry voice hissed in the back of my mind and I growled.

I was on my feet and headed to Derek’s heat room before I’d even given the action conscious thought.  I ignored the concerned looks thrown at me by the couple of people I passed and could feel my body heat up as I got closer, the scent-memory of Derek’s heat in my mind.

All of it was brought to an abrupt halt at the sudden burst of a sharp sterile scent swirling around me a mere dozen paces from the door. In a slightly disoriented state, I staggered back and looked up at the vents and realization dawned on me followed by a heavy wave of shame and embarrassment.

Neutralizing Mist, meant to clear an Alpha’s or Beta’s sense when they were lust crazed by an omega’s scent. I hadn’t realized we’d had it installed, but never had I been more thankful for it.

I turned away from Derek’s room and stalked down the hall avoiding all of the generally busier halls in my shame as I went to the room I had been sleeping in, unable to rest with the lingering scent of Derek and his heat in there.

I took a cold bath, but even that barely was able to relieve the warmth and even less so wash away the shame of what I’d almost done. I sulked to my bed, falling onto it with a grunt followed by a low whine as I wished for a warm body pressing against me and calloused hands brushing ever so soothingly through my hair…

I wished, not for the first time, to be _home_ already.


	17. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What? I've already finished another chapter? Who AM I??? Lmao. Hopefully this one is good. I went a different way with his heat this time, but they won't all be like this. ;] We'll see if I can go three for three next week around this time! ^.^; Look forward to it! Let me know if you find any mistakes. *hugs and kisses to everyone*
> 
> Probably the only reason I was able to write this chapter at all was all the lovely supportive/inspiration comments. Thank you all so much. <3

Chapter 16

_Derek_

Of all the things I’d expected of my “heat”, I hadn’t expected it to be quite like… _this._

Sure, calling it a ‘heat’ implied that I’d be horny—and I sure as hell was that, sometimes to a point that left me sore in ways I didn’t even know I could be sore—but I guess I hadn’t expected how _literal_ it was.

Cuz I felt like I was sweating buckets half the time. Or at least it felt like I was when I was in my more lucid moments… Not to mention the thick clear lube-like substance in my ass… Oh boy, how much I hated that. It felt gross and honestly, I couldn’t see how this could or would _ever_ be a good experience for me, ever.

Half the time, all I wanted was a dick in my ass, or occasionally, my dick in an ass-and always a very specific ass/dick on the same dark skinned body—the other half I just wanted to sit under the spray of a cold shower.

Also, the number of times I’d cried when I came and had no one to cuddle was frankly embarrassing considering it couldn’t have _possibly_ been more than two days or so. Maybe three.

I’d definitely lost some hours somewhere though I’d done my best at trying to keep up with it.

“Fuck,” I growled as a wave of this accursed heat curled across my skin. I just wanted to sleep a full eight hours. The entire experience was some horrific mixture of perpetually too drunk to function and horny as sin.

I whined as I shoved two fingers and then another inside as deep as I could, desperate. I couldn’t do much at this awkward angle. My own fingers felt _nothing_ like Yuvile’s.

I wanted him so bad my body hurt just thinking about it. I was gonna fuck him so hard when I saw him, and then make him fuck me.

I clenched my jaw and felt the sensation of magic slipping from my control—I’d quickly become familiar with it by now—spread across my skin. I whipped the air in the room into a frenzy throwing anything not bolted down around the room.

I came with a choked off groan, feeling tired and dissatisfied. Not exactly unusual, I was discovering, especially at this point, but I figured maybe I could finally get some shut eye for now.

I woke up some undefined time later, feeling slightly more rested than before. The burning fever of my heat was still simmering below my skin, but I felt more in control than I had in what felt like an eternity. I stretched and looked around at the mess my magic had made of the room when my eyes landed on a set of fresh clothes next to a tray with water and some food.

A note was neatly folded on top of the clothes.

Part of me naively hoped it was from Yuvile, but I knew immediately from the scent it was from Edo, the guard that Yuvile had assigned me.

I gave a not-quite-sane laugh at the fact that I could tell who wrote it from a _smell_ , but got up to eat and drink while skimming the note. I’d worry about that particular thing some other time.

_Derek,_

_Your alpha is too busy working himself into a frenzy to write you a proper letter, so you’ll have to do with me…_

_We will be docking at the capital around 16:20. Hopefully, you’re through the worst of your heat. I brought some clean clothes and food as well, sorry for the intrusion. Please eat._

_Yuvile will come pick you up once the ship and landing area are cleared._

_Good Luck (that’s the human phrase, yes?)_

_Edo_

I glanced at the time on the wall clock. 15:41. That was plenty of time to get presentable.

The bouts of hot flashes were fewer and less intense than the day before so I was actually bale to function relatively well.

By the time I was finished getting ready, I was becoming antsy, but it wasn’t much longer when I heard the telltale sound of the door opening. I jumped up and started towards the door but the scent of Yuvile hit me like a truck. I had to bodily resist the desire to tackle him.

“Derek?” Yuvile’s voice carried into the room but he didn’t come in. I couldn’t blame him. The vents had gone into overdrive about 30mins before we were supposedly going to be landing, but the stench of the room was still prevalent, I’m sure.

I pushed back the urge to run up and tackle him, forcing myself to keep an even pace. I was determined to control this.

“Finally,” I said, “I was starting to feel cooped up.”

I walked up to him and my body reacted viciously to the scent of his arousal spiking through the air. Oh god…. I just… I wanted….

I felt the surge of heat and lust and I was pulling him into a kiss before I’d even given it conscious thought.

I was going to pull away. I _was_. I was _determined_ to do so. I wasn’t going to let this stupid heat beat me but god… his touch, his kiss… his scent….

I finally understood what it meant to be touch starved, why I’d cried so many times during this stupid heat… Still, I knew I needed to stop… frustration bubbled up in my chest even as I moaned into the kiss.

“No,” Yuvile gasped out, pushing me to arm’s length looking as frustrated as I felt. “Derek… We… We’ve arrived at the capital.”

I compulsively tried to get closer, to feel more of him against my skin, but gave up when he held firm.

“B—” I started, not really sure what I wanted to say and cutting myself off. But? Better late than never? Either way I refused to be disappointed by the slight distance he kept between us. I made an irritated sound at myself and forced down these damn urges and let him guide me through the ship and down a dock and to a waiting…. Hover car?

Excitement bubbled through me.

“It’s a hover car?” I asked, “How does it run? Energy source? I wanna peek under the…” A wave of dizzying heat hit me and I groaned. “… Later then…”

I felt Yuvile’s hand, cool even through the fabric on my clothes, on my shoulder, comforting. I leaned unabashedly into it.

“Later.”

I was so hot now. I’m sure it was obvious. He helped me into the car, and honestly, who thought this was a good idea?

If Yuvile smelled this good to _me,_ I couldn’t even begin to imagine how I must smell to him. Of course, rolling down a window would be…

Yuvile shifted slightly and I lost my train of thought. He must’ve been saying something—something about after my heat, maybe?—but I wasn’t interested in any of that… I just wanted _my alpha_.

I attempted to slip a hand in his pants before even thinking, loving the moan he made.

“Derek… stop,” he groaned and then, “Whiskey.”

My entire body froze, the whole situation crashing into crystal clear focus.

“You… really don’t want to?” I heard myself ask as I withdrew my hand, feeling almost hurt, but whether it was by his adamant denial or by my own lack of will power, I wasn’t sure.

“I do… but,” he broke off with a sigh. “I don’t want to hurt you more than I already have. Once your heat is over, I’ll fuck you as much as you want, but for now, please just… just try to sleep for a bit…”

I frowned at him, but the words got through, more or less. I climbed into his lap before thinking better of it.

“Derek, no—”

“I’m not gonna,” I interrupted, burying my face in his neck. “But the touch feels nice. I’m too hot.” I paused, suddenly painfully aware of how tense he was and felt a wave of guilt at my impulsiveness. “Sorry…” I mumbled and made to get off, but he stopped me.

“It’s… fine. I—I can handle this much, if it helps you feel more comfortable,” he replied planting a too soft kiss in my hair and pulling me back against him.

He rubbed careful circles on my back, the touch soothing my fevered skin. I wanted to thank him… but I was already dozing.

I hadn’t fallen asleep so soundly in quite a while.


	18. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end is drawing closer! I'll try and update again next week. <3 This is kind of exciting cuz I've never actually finished anything before. Even if it needs to be completely rewritten (I've only just realized that I've basically completely left out their mage lines and a whole other mess of things), it'll be FINISHED and that's exciting.... I'm estimating another 4 chapters, but that may or may not change (likely to include something else). Thank you for sticking with me until now. And also the next chapter is only gonna exist cuz of all the comments. ^o^/ Hopefully ya'll like them....

Chapter 17

_Yuvile_

“ _Are you going to be alright?”_ Ezekial asked, from his position near where I was pacing.

“ _What do you think?_ ”

My reply was harsh, but it didn’t seem to bother him.

“ _There’s still a while yet before we land and empty the ship. Try and relax…”_ he grumbled in reply. “ _You look like you haven’t slept in days.”_

I scowled at him, “ _Easy for you to say!_ ”

I caught a small grin on his mouth and glared harder before turning away like a child throwing a tantrum.  It was, frankly, embarrassing for me to act this way, but I _was_ awfully tired and Ezekial had been my body guard since I’d been crowned…. So I let myself have this.

I alternated between pacing and sitting as the tension coiled tightly in me. By the time the notice that we’d be landing in less than a minute blared across the ship’s speakers, I felt ready to explode. I knew I shouldn’t let it affect me, but my _mate_ who was still in _heat_ was going to have to expose himself in public and I couldn’t relax as every alarm bell in my head went off.

“We’ll be landing in 20 seconds…” sounded over the intercom, and then, a few moments later, “10 seconds… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3…”

The ship gave a loud shudder.

“2… 1…” a rumbling signaled the attachment to the docks and collision with the landing pad.

“We are now docked. Due to Emergency Protocol, please wait for your sector to be called and exit the ship in a calm and organized manner…” the captain’s voice was crisp and clear. “Please have ID tags at the ready and thank you for flying on The Horizon.”

Sectors were called until only the Royal Entorage remained. Ezekial said something into his comm as I paced with a bit more urgency.

“The ship and docking bay are clear,” he announced, pulling my attention to him, ‘Are you ready to go pick up Derek?”

I took a deep breath before nodding and starting towards Derek’s room. “ _Have the others go ahead and disembark. You go, as well. I’ll be able to handle this better without another Alpha nearby_.”

He nodded and then after a moment asked, “ _Would you like me to send Edo in after you, if you’re taking too long?”_

I felt the growl building in my chest and had to stop it. “ _Yes.”_

With a bow he left me in front of the hall. I could see that door that had been haunting me for the last few hours. There was some bitter shame in my soul, but I didn’t waste time. Better to get it over with.

I stepped up to the door and knocked, unsure of what to expect, before letting it slide open.

The air was heavy with the scent of Derek, even if it had been heavily ventilated since we’d entered the atmosphere and I could feel every cell in my body react. I couldn’t move.

“Derek?” I asked into the dim room.

“Finally, I was starting to feel cooped up,” came his voice sending shivers of joy and desire down my spine. He stepped into view and came closer and his scent was driving me wild. I wanted him, but I refused to give in. And then he was kissing me and I couldn’t help but reciprocate and I could feel the heat spread and grow between us.

“No,” I gasped, pushing him away, a voice screaming at me in my mind. “Derek… We… we’ve arrived at the capital…”

There was some resistance against my hands, but it didn’t last long and I was thankful. I had no idea how long I was going to be able to hold out if he pulled more of that.

“B—” he started, then stopped.

He made a quiet sound of irritation. After a moment for both of us to ready ourselves, I led him towards the transport.

 “It’s a hover car?” he asked, tone full of familiar excitement, “How does it run? Energy source? I wanna peek under the…” he stopped and groaned. “… Later then…”

I gave him a worried look and put a cautious hand on his shoulder. He was burning up…

“Later,” I agreed, letting him lean into the touch. It was comforting me just as much as it must’ve been comforting him.

I helped him into the transport, and crawled in behind him. So far so good, though the strain of paranoid anxiety was giving me quite the headache. Derek’s scent in the enclosed space was also alarmingly tempting. It was taking a great deal more willpower than I thought I might have.

“When your heat is through, I’ll try and give you a tour of the capital. The Noble’s Sector is quite beautiful… And the underground la—” I broke off with an undignified moan. “Derek… stop…” and then more desperately as his hands wiggled their way to the place I wanted them so badly, “Whiskey.”

Derek froze, wide eyes focused on me.

“You… really don’t want to?” he asked and I felt my heart squeeze as that voice in my head demanded that I comfort my mate. He had pulled his hand away and I both missed it and was thankful.

“I do… but,” I started and then stopped and sighed. “I don’t want to hurt you more than I already have. Once your heat is over, I’ll fuck you as much as you want, but for now, please just…just try to sleep for a bit.”

He frowned at me, but didn’t move to continue or do anything else so I felt some of the nerves loosen in my back, but before I got too comfortable, he was situating himself into my lap.

“Derek, no—”

“I’m not gonna,” he interrupted, and I felt his breath ghosting across my neck. “But the touch feels nice. I’m too hot.” And he was. His skin was worryingly warm and I had to wonder if this was _normal_ for an omega in heat. “Sorry…” he murmured and began climbing off but I stopped him.

“It’s… fine.” It wasn’t. “I—I can handle this much, if it helps you feel more comfortable.” I pressed my lips against his hair near me and held him closer to me.

It was too hot in the car, but his soft, even breathes as he fell asleep was worth it. The silence weighed heavily on my and the words I’d said earlier seemed to scream at me… it made the situation terribly easy.

I had hurt him enough… I realized now, how brutish my behavior had been that first now… I _really_ understood it now. And I understood why he’d kept me at arm’s length after that first time and I could feel the shame bubbling up in my chest. I was lucky he was still willing to be with me.

Sure, he was half-bound to me, but that didn’t mean he _had_ to stay…

I somehow managed to get out of the transport without waking him up. Niran, Ansilu’s older brother, and the Royal Oracle’s second tier apprentice, was waiting there and gave me an amused smile followed by a surprised one.

_“Niran…_ ” I greeted quietly, “ _It’s good to see you…_ ”

“ _He’s in heat,_ ” Niran stated in a hissed whisper, there was fire in his silver eyes, “ _Why under the Three Moons have you brought your in-heat omega mate out in public?”_

_“He’s…stubborn…”_ I replied, accepting the anger. “ _Has Ezekial arrived?”_

“ _Yes, he seemed to be in a hurry…”_

“ _Good, he was to prepare the heat room in my quarters…”_

“ _Why would you ne… oh, I see. He did not wish to spend his heat with you?”_

“ _It’s complicated…”_ I said as we walked towards the royal wing.

“ _Do you wish for me to escort him, instead?”_

“ _No, thanks, Niran… Though, I could do with your assistance in a few matters… not only as an oracle, but also as my friend.”_

“ _I take it this isn’t a matter of state?”_

_“No, I will leave that to the Keeper.”_   I replied, “ _No need to burden you with so much…”_

_“I’d be honored,”_ Niran replied with a soft smile.

“ _Excellent. I’ll meet you in the parlor later after dinner?”_

Niran gave a bow of his head and then turned away.

“ _He seems to be quite the unusual omega. But I’m happy that the lonely scent you carried since the coronation has eased.”_

He was already walking off before I had the chance to reply, disappearing down one of the many paths of the castle that led to the palace gardens.

I released a huff of a laugh against Derek’s neck causing him to grumble and I smiled gently.

“Let’s get you situated then. My arms are getting tired carrying you,” I told him quietly and started towards my private chambers.

A young beta maid greeted us with a polite bow.

“ _Welcome home, your majesty. Sir Ezekial bade me assist you,”_ she said.

“ _Thank you, lead the way.”_

She bowed again and led to us to a freshly cleaned room.

“ _The vents are set with N-Mist for two days, just in case… Would you like the override code?”_

“ _No… See to it that Oracle Niran receives the code…”_

_“Of course, your majesty,”_ she replied, covering her surprise rather well.

“ _You’re dismissed…”_

She bowed one last time and disappeared into the castle likely to find Niran.

I settled Derek down on the bed and left after making sure the door was firmly sealed and engaging the N-Mist before heading to the council room. I had plenty of things to keep me occupied now that I was hope.

I stopped by a window and took a breath of the arid but clean air. I was ready to enjoy being home, but it would have to wait… I was ready to go to sleep next to Derek again.

The next two days were spent in meetings and Derek’s position as my mate became more urgently noticeable. He would need to appoint an advisor to act as a balance to the ones currently in office… Then of course there were the other aspects of being the Alpha Mate… mostly ceremonial, but there were several political responsibilities…..

I hadn’t even thought about it until it had been brought up by Advisor Ravu. As much as I hated the man, he made a good point. Derek had to be taught the politics of Neoria. But until the bond was official, we couldn’t commit to a wedding ceremony. And there was also the problem of explaining to the populace _why_ their king’s mate had _not_ returned his bond bite…

I had one thing to look forward to after that second day of meetings… It was Derek’s first night in my room after the end of his heat.

“Do I really go through this every month?” he asked as he came in from a bath. “Also, I feel like an open air bath on a desert planet is a bit extreme.”

“Yes, you do,” I replied, glad to hear his voice. “And it’s only a desert on the surface…. Though we don’t boast an abundance of water throughout Neoria, we are very conscious about how it’s managed.”

He walked by where I say at a small table and collapsed on the bed. His scent was tainted by tiredness.

“I could sleep for a week,” he said with a laugh and then grumbled, “I’m too old for this.”

I snorted and continued reading over the document in front of me.

“I wanna go to sleep…”

“IF the lights are bothering you I can—”

“Get in the bed Yuvile.”

A giddy feeling shocked through me and any worry I had was soothed by the suddenly relaxed, embarrassed scent rolling off Derek.

“Edo promised to tutor me in magic,” he said as I flicked the lights off and I climbed into the bed. “He said he’d hate to see me break some precious heirloom cuz a certain royal puppy couldn’t keep his mouth shut…”

“Puppy?” I asked indignantly.

“Well, he used some Neorian word—just so you know learning Neso is _hard_ —and said it was sort of like a puppy…”

“That lying son of a…” I growled only slightly offended. “Do not take language lessons from that one. He is too crass for a member of royalty to copy.”

Derek just snorted in response. WE both laughed after a brief silence.

“Hey,” he said and I glanced over to him, enjoying the way he looked in the pale moonlight streaming through the curtains.

“Hmm?” I asked, forcing my mind to focus.

“Thank you.”

That caught me off guard a bit. “For what?”

“For respecting my request… and for stopping me from well… ya know…”

“Don’t thank me for that… As not only the king and your mate, but also as a person, _that_ is the least I should’ve done,” I replied, adamantly, and realized that now was the perfect time to bring up something that had been troubling me. “In fact… I… I owe you a proper apology…. for my, frankly, deplorable behavior those first few days. I should’ve—”

“Apology accepted, now don’t start on those any should’ves. We’ve both made plenty of mistakes and we’ll definitely wind up making more. There’s no point lingering on them now.” Derek interrupted and I watched him roll over onto his side and thought for sure I’d made him mad once again.

Silence lingered before he let out a frustrated, “Well?”

“What?”

“You gonna spoon me or not?”

Delight came on the heels of realization and I wasted no time accepting his offer. I curled up against him and buried my nose in the little hairs at the base of his neck.

“Goodnight, Yuvile,” Derek mumbled, scent wafting contentment.

“Good night,” I replied.

That was the most restful sleep I’d gotten since the incident.


	19. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Screams incoherently* Starting this chapter was hard but it actually came out pretty easily? What? I was so surprised. But it's done. Anyway, I just needed to make a chapter that bridged the next one a little and also showed Derek kind of taking things seriously. Unfortunately, he's not quite allowed to do some official things yet for various reasons (*coughcough*incomplete bond*coughcough*).  
> Well, I'll see if the next chapter comes out just as easily. There are three chapters left (Ch. 19, Ch. 20, and the Epilogue). Soooooooo.... I'll do my best to not cry as I write the last bit. Other than that little 5 chapter story that's mostly terrible, I've never finished anything so this is a big deal for me? Lmao. Well, I'll see what I can do at any rate. Sorry if it isn't as amazing as you all wanted it/will want it to be, but look forward to the eventual rewrite I'll do. It'll hopefully be 90000000x better.

Chapter 18

_Derek_

“ _Wait, would you please repeat that for my sake?”_ I mumbled out in choppy Neorian, a sigh waiting to be released as soon as I could bring myself to accept that speaking this damn language was something no human had any right trying to do. Reading it had turned out to be easier than expected. I’d just had to take the strange letters and picture them as their own little formula and equate them to words and such.

Speaking though? My mouth just didn’t want to form the words. How many times I’d I asked this tutor to repeat himself?

“ _Perhaps we should take a break for now?”_ he replied, smiling kindly. “ _It looks like you’re losing focus. A walk in the gardens might help?”_

_“A walk in the… what?”_

“ _Gardens,”_ he repeated with a small chuckle.

“Oh! Okay. _I understand. Thank you very much.”_ I nodded and stood quickly, eager to escape the room. It was the second week in and I’d grasped some basics. The Neorian hierarchy was complicated and even more than that, the political environment was weird.

However, as much as I found the thought of being stuck in the castle irritating, I was never without something to do. Yuvile had made sure there was a nice little room for me to working on small projects, though he made sure to tell me not to work on anything too big without asking first because of specific weight restrictions within the Nobles’ districts.

The skyline of the city was… beautiful. I often strolled along the tops of the castle walls to view the inverted city scape. The sparse and suburban-looking nobles district slowly stretching out into the sprawling skyscraper and densely packed city further away.

My tutor had suggested the gardens, but I was more of a mind to visit there, but first…

I greeted Ezekiel as I walked by and, since he made no motion to stop me, simply let myself into Yuvile’s public sitting room, nestled between the throne room and our private chambers, it was where the king could take private meetings with guests. I gave a courtesy knock to his office, a smaller room off to the right, and walked in.

“How’s the king doing today?” I asked, as I saw him glaring at paperwork.

“It would be going better if there wasn’t so much _work_.” He growled quietly.

“Anything I can help with considering I’m still not official yet?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be with your language tutor?”

“I couldn’t focus so we’re taking a break… I was gonna go for a walk and figured I’d ask you to come with me. I imagine you’re just as in need as I am.”

“ _First I’m going to need you to tell ask me in Neso.”_ He said, his voice sharper and quicker when speaking in his native tongue. I glared.

“ _Please would you repeat that more slowly? I believe I only heard you say ‘ask me’.”_ I replied, carefully.

He smiled a bit and then outright laughed.

“Why are you laughing?” I demanded.

“You sound so uptight.” He laughed, but there was a sort of pleasantness to his scent that let me know he was quite pleased.

“I can’t help that. That’s all I’ve been taught, also books on Neorian mechanics aren’t exactly pits of common dialect. But if you want me to give you a summary of the last one I read, I could probably pull it off.”

“That is definitely not necessary,” Yuvile looked paler at the thought. “As for before…”

He repeated his request more slowly this time and I nodded in understanding.

“ _Would you like to… walk with me?”_ I asked, careful of my enunciation with the question. I’d learned the hard way once that it was easy to mix up ‘to walk’ and ‘to have sex’ in this particular question. Some sort of colloquial nonsense I had never had to think of when speaking English that was basically the equivalent of saying to sleep together. If said the right way, it implies sex, though the words themselves are innocent enough.

“I see you watched your pronunciation there… I take it you made that mistake already?”

“Did I not tell you about it? I very nearly wooed one of the tutors the other evening, you know? You’d have been so jealous.”

He growled a bit, but there was a playful look on his face, clearly now finished with pretending to work. He stood up and came over to me.

“ _Then let us walk_.” He said, and I recognized the words for what they were and gave him a halfhearted glare.

“Honestly,” I sighed, “We’re on a break, we don’t have _time_ for that.”

“I’m the King,” he grumbled. “I can make time.”

“And _that_ is why you have so much work to do,” I replied as we walked out. Ezekiel followed us at a distance, quiet and bored looking.

Despite the joking, we hadn’t had sex since we’d arrived. And I suppose it was getting to both of us. But there was still some things that worried me and so I was waiting a little longer.

We talked about our day as we walked, and when he grabbed my hand, I let him hold it and tried to hide how much it pleased me. Something told me he knew and was just as happy about it.

“Still nothing from the US government?” I asked as our conversation drifted to the attempted assassination. “Let me guess, they’re trying to blame it on Russia?”

“Hmm… No, Canada, actually,” he replied.

“What? Canada? Seriously? Sounds fake,” I said humming. “But… I can see how that could pan out… Still there’s so much about it that’s worrying me…”

“Me too,” he replied. “I don’t imagine there is any hope of resolving this quickly… though I’m hoping to settle it without any prolonged hostility…”

I nodded.

“I appreciate that.” I replied. “You’ve been speaking with Ansilu a lot right?”

“As much as I can with the time delay,” he replied, and seemed to brighten up suddenly. “Actually, he told me he found his soulmate recently.”

“What!” I exclaimed, feeling excited for him, “Wait, he didn’t kidnap him and stuff did he?”

There was a bit of guilt in his expression and I squeezed his hand.

“No, it appears they met by chance while they were both investigating something, but we haven’t been able to discuss it more yet. I believe he’ll be coming here with Ansilu shortly.” He replied. “Once Niran arrives their investigation should progress more smoothly and allow them to come home within the two or three months.”

We walked along the walls and down into the gardens before winding our way back to his office, chatting on lighter topics. He listened to me speak at length about the interesting tidbit I’d read on acceleration capacitors in small Neorian aircraft and how they could definitely be used to increase the flight speed of space vessels with a few modifications.

“Good luck at work then, Yuvile,” I said as he settled back behind his mountain of paperwork and data tablets. It seemed to have grown since we left for our walk.

“Derek,” he called gesturing for me to come closer. He tugged me down and placed a quick kiss on my lips. “Thanks for the walk.”

I rolled my eyes fondly, trying to play off the heat I could feel on my cheeks. As I was pulling away I saw a piece of paper with barely a paragraph of text on it. It was a request that ideas for preventing any future incidents that could risk the safety of a space vessel stranded.

“This…” I said pointing to the document. “I have an idea for this. Can I submit ideas?”

“You have an idea for this?”

“Yes.” I replied. “Err… I was already drawing up some documents before… I call it Project Star Catcher…”

“Is it finished?”

“Ah, no, I’m afraid it was one of those projects that honestly needed an entire crew… I got the barebones and some ideas about it, but…”

“I see… Can I see it later?”

“Of course,” I replied.

“Good, now, go back to your language tutor. I want you to be able to tell me about your family and your favorite colors by the end of the day.” He laughed.

“Alright, I’ll make sure to look up how to say ‘my brother is a dick’ in Neso then. I’m sure my language tutor will be thrilled.” I replied, and laughed as we walked out heading back to the tutor.

Three hours and one heated debate about the appropriateness of the Alpha Mate knowing Neorian slang later, I was free to go back to my own affairs.  First I made a quick stop at my little workshop to gather up all my notes into one convenient document. I scrawled ‘Star Catcher’ across the cover and took it with me to the common room of our shared chambers. There were stacks of books scattered across the room, mostly concentrated near the soft couch in the middle of the room. My tablet also sat there. I grabbed it and settled into my place, laying the file on the table for when Yuvile returned.

I opened the communication app—I could actually _read_ what apps were what now—and dialed in a familiar number.

A familiar face greeted me, surprised, and actually pretty wrecked looking. And not the bad sort either.

“Did I call at a bad time?” I asked, smirking a little bit.

“No, perfect time actually…” Avani replied, looking a little red in the face.

“Hm… I’m not sure, I’m pretty positive that’s a hickey I see on your collar bone.” I said, “Looks fresh, still kind of red.”

He slapped a hand over the spot the hickey was at and I gave a victory laugh as he glared at someone off screen—I could faintly hear their laughter in the background.

“I can call back later, Avani,” I said. “I’m not—”

I broke off as Niran entered the screen, looking smug.

“Oh…. _OH!_ ” I said, laughing again.

“Hello, Derek,” he greeted.

“Of all the people I expected to see, you were not the one…” I said, smiling. “May I ask how this happened?”

“It seems we’re mates,” Niran replied. “Avani found me less than a day out looking quite angry.”

“From what I remember, Avani wasn’t ever too fond of willful omegas,” I replied, eyes sparkling. “Looks like your fates had a sense of humor. Congratulations… Have you told anyone yet?”

“As an oracle, we’re keeping it quite for now. I wanted to tell Ansilu first… but I’ll accept letting you know.” Niran replied.

“Well, then I’ll go,” I said.

“No, we can talk.” Avani grumbled. “Niran was _just_ leaving.”

“What..?” Niran whined slightly. “Ugh, fine… Have fun, Ava.”

Avani blushed more deeply as Niran placed a small kiss on his cheek and then disappeared from the screen. The faint swish of a door opening and closing signaled his departure.

“So…. You and Niran, huh?” I started with a grin stretching across my face. Avani groaned, but he didn’t look displeased.

We talked for a solid hour before sleep pulled him away. It seems both Avani and Ansilu had found their mates now.

They were both much more eager to commit than I had been… but it seems their relationships had started off on much better footing than mine had.

I thought about our walk today, the almost casual way he’d grabbed my hand and the kiss before I left, the adoration on his face…

Our relationship had changed though. The feelings that I’d started developing before that whole mess weren’t the same intense feelings as before but they were there and it was becoming harder to ignore them.

“What’re you thinking about?” Yuvile’s voice startled me out of my thoughts and I gave him a surprised look.

“When did you…?”

“I’ve been here for about two minutes now.” He replied, smiling. “Well?”

“Nothing much, just stuff,” I replied and sat up so he could sit next to me. “Uh, here are the documents I have.”

I handed him the folder.

“Oh, thank you.” He mumbled taking it and flipping through it. After a few moments he hummed. “A space station?”

“Yeah, back when we still had a space program we had one. It was great for gathering data both about space but also its effects on the body and observing the planet… but in this case, it’d act as more of a space station _hub_.” I replied. “A place to have ships pass through for maintenance and refueling, a place to double check that no more unsavory people make it on planet, and a place that can deploy engineers to SOS locations…”

“SOS?” he asked.

“Err… it’s a Morse code thing, but basically it’s like an emergency beacon. I’ve been trying to find more books on the electrical networks used on modern Neorian Space crafts, but it seems a lot of them are classified, so I’ve not been able to really think up a concept to make an emergency beacon or a system that’d answer it… Honestly, I’m more an engine sort of guy, so it’s harder for me to figure out the program bits to things like that…”

“It seems a bit of a stretch…” Yuvile said, “We already monitor those who board and exit space crafts both at the point of origin and destination, but a docking station for emergencies... that’s seems extremely valuable… once your grasp on Neso gets a little better, I will introduce you to some people I believe will be quite helpful… If anything like this were to happen, many of the noble families would need to be persuaded to support it and that wouldn’t happen until it was feasible.”

“Guess I need to study harder,” I replied, feeling a bit giddy at the thought of seeing even the idea of my project get put to use.

He handed the documents back to me and leaned over and kissed me. He moved to pull back, but I grabbed him and held him there, kissing him again, longer. I almost didn’t want to let him loose but I could feel the tension in his muscles.

“You should go take a hot bath,” I mumbled as I pulled back. “You’re tense, I bet it’s from slaving over all that paper work.”

He nuzzled my cheek and then my neck and I felt a familiar sense of desire curl through me.

“Perhaps later, I know something that may serve to relax us both…” he mumbled pressing his mouth against my neck and kissing gently. “ _Would you like to walk with me?”_

And yeah, okay, I got it now. The sensual curl of the world coming out of the mouth of a native speaker was definitely… something beyond my own capabilities.

“ _I’d enjoy that.”_ I replied, and he growled with delight as he picked me up, hands under my ass. I gave a surprised grunt. “I _can_ walk.”

“Yes, I know,” He said, carrying me towards our room. He dumped me into the large bed and began stripping me carefully of my clothes, nothing like the animalistic manner from all the times on the ship. “But I plan to make sure you cannot walk after tonight.”

“Is that a threat or a promise?” I asked with a small shiver as he ran his hands along my thighs, past my hips to my neck where he pulled my mouth to his.

“Both,” he murmured against my mouth.


	20. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've finished the story. <3 I'm going to go ahead and post the last three chapters today. ^o^ I'm already working hard to start rewriting it!! Please don't kill me for introducing something so close to the end also, I realized rather belatedly that it hadn't been mentioned at all and just kind of forced it in there. While not particularly important to THIS story, it IS extremely important to the universe this story is set in so...
> 
> >>>> I'm going to post a link to a survey on the last chapter/epilogue comments! <<<<  
> >> Please take it if you have time and I'll do my best to reward you with a prompt fic as a thank you. <3 <<
> 
> <3 <3 <3

Chapter 19

_Derek_

Two and a half months later and things had progressed smoothly. My Neso was so much better than that first couple of weeks—after the fourth week, Yuvile forced everyone to only speak to me in Neso and not respond to my English unless I was asking about a words meaning—and I’d started being engulfed by the more intricate parts of Neorian society and had been learning about the political responsibilities of the Alpha Mate. I’d gotten used to the title, and also the name I’d been given (WHAT WAS IT?), but still I insisted that at least those I considered close use only Derek.

Yuvile accepted my request easily, understanding after I told him I wasn’t planning on giving up my human identity completely even if I finally understood what he’d meant by my becoming Neorian. I could barely remember what it was like to just guess at emotions without a person’s scent to help me along. And the ability to see more easily in dim lighting? That was also a blessing. It made tinkering on small devices just that much easier.

The first stages of Project Star Catcher were beginning to form as I met regularly with a few fellow engineers and other scientists to make something that could protect not only Neoria, but any who might find themselves adrift in space…

Ansilu and Nivan and their mates were set to leave Earth to return in the next month, and that was more than a little exciting for me. I was looking forward to meeting Ansilu’s mysterious mate.

For now, I was relaxing in the sitting room, most of the books actually put away properly, as I skimmed through a rather bland history of the noble families. It was weird, I thought, that they had such a long history and so much developed culture, and yet the small crystal that was on their necks—they called it a source mark—remained a mystery.

It wasn’t my field of study, but it was a rather curious thing. I’d spent one evening tracing those white markings across Yuvile’s body with my mouth and they’d seemed to glow under my touch as if responding. Yuvile had had no answers for me. Apparently they’d lost several thousand years’ worth of history with the catastrophic even that had turned most of their planet to a desert.

Still, I’d had hoped to find anything with in the documents on history or at least in modern magical or biological studies, but it seemed to be painfully absent...

“You look bored out of your mind…” Yuvile said from the door and I glanced up at him. He looked tired. I was beginning to realize that was mostly my fault. As the Alpha Mate I had responsibilities, but until I was officially presented, there was little I could do in a political capacity.

I had plans to change that soon, though.

I pulled my feet toward me so he could drop into the seat with a sigh.

“I take it the meeting with the Earth governments were well?” I asked though I knew the answer would be no. They’d made little to no progress with it as tensions continued to build.

“I think we almost made some progress this time,” he sighed. “But before we could, the US called for a recess so that they could focus on a string of natural disasters affecting their eastern most cities.”

“A recess? How long?” I asked.

“A month.”

“Hmm… that’s actually really convenient.” I mumbled. He gave me a look that told me he could not possibly disagree with me more.

“And how is that?”

“Well…” I said. “My heat starts in about a week and a half.”

Yuvile’s whole countenance changed and he looked at me wide eyed.

“Derek?”

I shrugged.

“Are you… sure? You know what that means don’t you?”

“Of course I do. I’ve thought about it for a couple weeks now… since my last heat, actually.” I replied, trying to act unaffected but knowing that there were likely about 20 different contradicting emotions swirling in my scent right then. I found myself with a lap full of alpha. He pressed his mouth against mine as he crushed his body against mine, more or less throwing the book out of my hands.

If the kiss hadn’t let me so breathless I might’ve commented on his rough treatment of such a delicate object, but a quick peak out of the corner of my eye assured me that while one the floor it had landed properly.

With any worry to the book cleared from my brain, I turned my full attention to the man before me, pulling him in just as he pushed closer. I groaned into his mouth and then with little thought to it, I rolled us and we went careening off the couch onto the floor.

“Fuck, sorry,” I grumbled, sitting up slightly, straddling his hips. I could feel his bulge against my ass and heat curled in my stomach.

“’s fine.” He replied, voice a husky growl. “I’m sturdy.”

“That you are,” I mumbled scooting back so I could pull off pants. He busied himself with his shirt. I refused to move away even though it made taking our clothes off awkward, and I gave up half way to getting his pants off  pulling them down about half way down his thighs and then straddling him again.

“Derek,” he groaned out as I rubbed our erections together, I smirked down at him. This was probably the first time he’d let me be on top and not immediately flipped us. “I can’t move well enough like this…”

I silenced him by sticking my fingers in his mouth, he gave a half-hearted glare but I could see the heat in his eyes and smell the arousal in his scent.

“I think I can handle it.” I replied, confidence in my voice. His tongues licking along my fingers sent a shiver through me and I slowly slipped them from his mouth before fingering myself open. This whole omega thing had one benefit at any rate. I’d figured out just how to make myself wet. Lube was no longer necessary—Yuvile had been both delighted and awestruck.

I slid down onto him, thighs quivering at the slow pace and the shock of sensation. I definitely should’ve prepped myself more but there was enough pleasure that the sting was merely an intensifier to the rest of the sensation.

We lost ourselves quickly, my nails digging into the skin of his chest as I lifted myself up and dropped back down, already panting from the effort of it. Yuvile met my motions the best he could with the fabric of his pants restraining him.

Eventually his impatience won out and his hands gripped my hips, I let him urge me to move faster, letting out a cry of delight as his hands bit into my skin hard enough I knew there would be bruises.

“Derek,” he growled, and he released me. I whined, but he merely sat up and the change in position had me crying out again as he pulled me into kisses. My body burned and I knew I was going to cum soon.

“Y—Yuvile,” I panted. “Bite?”

Yuvile’s whole body shuddered and he tensed up like he might cum then and there. After seeming to collect himself he tilted his head to the side and moved my face to his neck. “Here.”

It seemed to be a struggle for him to even get the word out. I growled a bit and he loosed his grip on me and I continued moving as I placed gentle kisses on him and then, without giving it too many more thoughts I bit… I bit hard enough that I felt skin tear and then tasted blood in my mouth and then I felt something else, something I couldn’t describe well up in the back of my mind and my vision whited out as I came and Yuvile shoved hard one last time as he forced his knot inside me.

I could feel his whole body shake with it, felt his pleasure and I knew he could feel mine and is this a bond? Is this what it felt like? I released his skin and pressed my discarded shirt against it to stop some of the bleeding. He made a discontent noise and pulled the cloth from my hands before he pulled me close and then bit the scars on my neck.

I came again with a little scream.

He released me after a few moments and held me tight against him as we floated through our pleasure haze. We didn’t speak for a while as we waited for his knot to go down, and didn’t say much after that as we took a quick bath.

We curled up together in the bed when I finally said something that I’d just realized.

“I’m never going to be able to study in there again,” I sighed.

“Hmm?” his eyes were closed and he sounded tired. My own legs felt good sore, my eyes kind of heavy after everything, though I think it was more Yuvile’s drowsiness than my own.

“That couch, the rug, the whole room is gonna smell like our sex…” I grumbled, “I’d never be able to focus.”

“Guess I’ll find it in the budget to get it remodeled,” Yuvile chuckled in a quiet voice.

“Guess so…”


	21. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING! This is a heat sex chapter! It's not as intense as I wanted it to be, I'm afraid, but still, I'm proud of the development of it, I think. <3
> 
> >>> I will be posting a link to a survey in the next chapter! <<<  
> >>Please do it if you can and I'll do my best to reward you with a prompt fic!<<
> 
> Thank you!

Chapter 20

_Yuvile_

It was almost too hot to bear, honestly. I’d heard many things about heat sex, but no one had really ever mentioned how actually _hot_ it was. And not just Derek’s body as he writhed underneath me, but my own body as the scent of my mate in heat sent me into a sort of sexual frenzy.

“Don’t be so scared to be rough with me, Yuvile,” Derek snapped as I trailed hands along his sides, “I’m not going to break. _Just fuck me until we pass out please._ ”

The fact that he’d used Neso for that last bit had me growling and hurrying to comply. I flipped him on his stomach and spread him open. I wanted to just plunge into that warm heat, I knew it’d be welcoming and wet, but I also wanted to taste him like this, wet and open and more desperate than I’d ever seen him.

I’d always thought heats made omegas submissive, and to a point it really did, but more than that it just made Derek more open about his desires.

I buried my face in him, shoving my tongue deep inside. It was so hot and Derek cried out, pressing back against me. The alpha in me rose up to the praise Derek’s body gave it and I fucked him with my mouth until my jaw was sore and I’d made my sweet omega come at least twice.

Derek was chanting my name by now, occasionally assuring me of all the plans he had for my mouth in between. I pulled back licking slick from my mouth. My own erection was throbbing and somehow I doubted I’d be able to get fully inside before I came, but I would be cursed by the Three Moons if I didn’t try.

I slammed home in one stroke, most of my caution gone in my own lust crazed state. Derek bit the pillow beneath him and all but screamed and then we were fucking, hard and brutal and desperate in a way I don’t think we’d ever done before, not even that first time. This wasn’t the time for me to draw him out and then pull him back only to quickly push him over the edge.

This was a desperate mating, both of us fueled by a need to cum. I bit his bond mark and his whole body jerked as he came again and I felt the answering hum in my mark as my knot grew until I had to reach down to help nudge it in, his body squeezing down on it.

We both shook as the pleasure curled around us. After what felt like forever, we slowly relaxed down on to the bed and I held him close, unconsciously rubbing his stomach.

“You really want a kid, huh?” Derek’s fucked out voice asked, and I jerked as his hips moved a bit as if on their own, his whole body shivering with each little movement.

“I… yes,” I replied. “I would like children…” I hesitated, “Do you?”

“I always wanted some, yeah.” Derek replied after a while. My knot finally went down enough for me to slip out and I felt Derek tense a bit. Before he groaned and smashed his face into the pillow.

“What is it?”

“It’s… it’s gonna leak out.” He grumbled, voice muffled, “Fuck, this is so stupid. I know it doesn’t matter either way but sometimes that little voice in the back of my head seems to make so much sense…”

Realization hit me and I slipped a hand down between us and gathered up the slick mess between his cheeks with my fingers and pushed into his soft whole. His whole body shuddered.

“Fuck…” he announced again, pressing back against my fingers. “Fuck me again. Fill me up until I can’t hold anymore, Yuvile. J—just this time, okay?”

I removed my fingers and lined up and slipped into him again. I kept my thrusts slow but short until Derek was practically whining as he pushed against me.

“This side of you is very cute,” I replied, “So honest.”

“I’m gonna fuck your ass raw when this heat is over, I swear to god,” Derek growled, “Gonna fuck you until you cry.”

I snorted, rolling us over so he was on top of me. He whined and I groaned as I sat us up and gripped his hips, urging him to move until we were practically bouncing on the bed with his desperate motions.

“You can laugh… now,” he panted, back arching very slightly, “But… I’m still a man, you know.”

“I am very aware of your manhood, Derek,” I replied gripping his cock to emphasize the point. “I find it quite enticing.”

He growled and groaned and jerked his hips in an attempt to thrust into my hand and down onto my cock at the same time.

“I’ll show you…” he panted, but he turned his focus back to fucking himself senseless on me. “Fuck, it’s hot… it’s too hot.”

By the end of our five days confined to the bedroom, we were both in serious need of some R&R. We spent most of the next day sleeping.  And after that, it was wedding planning.


	22. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Screams quietly* Here's the last chapter. ^.^ I'd love to just talk about how thankful I am but that'd take longer than it did to write the chapter, so I'll just leave you all with a bunch of my affection as I run away with this fluff fluff chapter here. ^^7 I had a scene in my head, and I think this turned out a little more awkwardly than I'd planned, but that's what I get for not having everything figured out while writing it, I suppose. XD  
> Update: It was pointed out to me that I miss named a character and I've gone and fixed my mistake. Thanks and so much love. <3 <3 Also for those of you who responded to the survey thank you so much. I literally started crying. I'm glad to get such feedback (I'll be working on all the things extra hard now!)
> 
> !!! And here's the survey!! Please take it!! <3 <3 I'll do my best to reward everyone properly!!!!  
> >>>> https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/W2PXPNJ <<<<<  
> **Please let me know if something weird happens with the link. I've never done this before. ^^;

Epilogue

_Derek_

As far as wedding went, Neorian ones were… boisterous affairs, but they were beautiful. Apparently magic and technology came together to ensure more or less glorious wedding ceremonies. I’d gone standard traditional US wedding style for the color themes and any other suggestions, but Yuvile made sure to turn all my rather drab suggestions into something that was… well, far from drab. And all in less than three months.

It was what I’d consider more or less a shotgun wedding, but it was executed like we’d been planning the damn thing for a year or more. It gave me a good view of what Yuvile could do when he put his mind to something. It also acted as my officiation as the Alpha Mate.

We stood on our little platform and addressed the crowd gathered before us as the rulers of a country… which happened to span the entire planet. No pressure or anything though.

I’d memorized and rememorized my speech and if I needed a boost, I had a signal for Yuvile to whisper lines to me in the guise of whispering loving nonsense. It went without a hitch and soon the party goers were eating and drinking and generally being merry. It was… nice to see something other than books and labs.

“At some point I’m going to actually be allowed to go see places, right?” I sighed looking at Yuvile pleadingly.

“Once you appoint your counselor and we catch up on all our paper work, yes. We’ll have to make a trip to see the Heads of the Noble houses in each of the other 9 districts and greet them properly.”

“I see…” I said, leaning back in the chair, hand landing on my stomach in an unconscious motion and with a sudden realization I looked at Yuvile. “I think I’m pregnant.”

Yuvile very nearly spit out his drink. “What?”

“I… It’s just a hunch. Do ya’ll have like pregnancy kits or something?”

Yuvile seemed to throw decency out the window as he crouched in front of me and buried his face against my stomach. I felt heat rise to my face.

“Y—Yuvile, what are you doing, in public no less?” I demanded.

He glanced up eyes burning with fire and joy.

“You’re pregnant.” He declared.

“Wait? What? You… did you just…?”

He stood up and turned to the crowd and called the lot of them to attention.

“ _I’d like to announce that my mate is pregnant_!” he said, looking way too thrilled.

“Wait, Yuvile, you can’t… what if… shouldn’t we, I dunno… confirm it first…?”

“Derek,” Yuvile looked at me with too much pride. “Magic is in this case, much more accurate than science. You’re pregnant.”

“O—oh…” I flushed again and gave a smile to the cheering crowd. “Well, in that case, guess we should start thinking up names.”

“Mated and pregnant to a man no less,” a familiar voice I hadn’t been expecting to hear ever again had me out of my seat and spinning around much to Yuvile’s surprise. “Nick!”

I practically launched myself at the man. “W—what? How?”

I could smell the scent of beta on him… he was someone’s mate? But whose?

“Ansilu! Welcome home. You’re late.”

“Yes, well, _someone_ didn’t adjust well to space flight.” Ansilu said and I pulled back to see him giving Nick a very pointed look.

“ _You’re_ Ansilu’s mysterious mate?” I asked.

“It does appear that way, yes.” Nick laughed. “I guess I know why I could never find the right guy.”

“Ah, if you two are here that means Avani and Niran are back as well?” I asked and as if summoned they appeared.

“Yes, I’m dreadfully sorry for being late,” Niran said, smiling, “We got caught up in a small… business matter.”

Yuvile and I shared a look at the obvious lie but just shrugged. I hugged them both as well. It’d been a long time since we’d spoken face to face. It was nice to see them.

“I hear many congratulations are in order though.” Niran said, “Though I suppose I already knew.”

“You already… Oh, right, Oracle…” I replied. “Wait, you knew and you didn’t tell me?”

“Sometimes knowing the future _can_ change it, you know? I thought it was best to let you get here on your own… You appreciate it more this way.” Niran replied with a shrug.

“Knowing you two, I’ve definitely come to realize that omegas are nothing like we’re taught.” Avani sighed, but he didn’t look disappointed in the slightest.

“Go get food,” I insisted, “And then come destroy the social standards that say no one can sit with the bride and groom.”

Nick laughed. “I always pegged you for a bit of a traditionalist when it came to this sort of thing.”

“I’ve changed a lot.” I replied with a shrug.

“Don’t worry, he is still quite stubborn.”

Nick’s laughter lingered as he and the other three disappeared into the crowd which parted once they recognized Niran as an oracle.

“Yuvile,” I caught his attention from where he was watching a group dance. He hummed and when I didn’t say anything he looked over at me. “I think now is as good a time as any… so… I wanted to tell you… _I’m not sure about ‘love’, honestly, but I am happy to be with you… I like you very much. I look forward to being with you…_ _forever._ ”

That last word had been given a simple definition ‘forever,’ but I’d found out that it had a much deeper meaning to Neorian culture. And I knew he’d understand.

“ _You…_ ” he whispered and then kissed me in front of the whole banquet. There was whooping in the distance. I knew there were going to be struggles. Our personalities and interests clashed often, but I wanted to work through them. I wanted to find the love Neorian texts described with him. It’d be hard. But we both had ‘ _forever’_.


End file.
